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- UFO 'BUZZED' AIRLINER AT MANCHESTER AIRPORT 02/02/96
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- Source : The Times [UK], 2nd February 1996 - Front Page
-
- BY HARVEY ELLIOTT, AIR CORRESPONDENT
-
- A BRITISH Airways passenger jet had a close encounter with an unidentified
- flying object while landing at Manchester airport, an official report disclosed
- last night.
-
- The Boeing 737, with 60 people on board, was overtaken at high speed by a
- wedge-shaped craft as the plane descended through 4,000ft on the final stages
- of a journey from Milan. Captain Roger Wills reported that the UFO, which was
- emblazoned with small white lights and possibly a black stripe down its side,
- flashed silently down the side of the jet so close that his co-pilot, First
- Officer Mark Stuart, involuntarily ducked as it went by.
-
- There was no sound and no wake but both pilots were so concerned that they
- filed a formal "airmiss" report. The Civil Aviation Authority launched an
- investigation, the fourth such incident since 1987, and after a year-long
- inquiry concluded yesterday that they could find no likely explanation. The
- three previous reported sightings also baffled the CAA experts.
-
- The incident happened at 6.48pm on January 6 last year with the aircraft just
- above the clouds and visibility at least ten miles. Then air traffic
- controllers had the following conversation with Flight 5061:
-
- B737: "We just had something go down the right-hand side, just above us
- very fast."
-
- Manchester: "Well there's nothing seen on radar. Was it an aircraft?"
-
- B737: "Well, it had lights, it went down the starboard side very quick."
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- Captain Wills and First Officer Stuart are certain that the object was solid
- and not a balloon, a model aircraft or even a military Stealth aircraft which
- the captain had seen before and would have recognised.
-
- Both pilots should be commended for their courage in submitting a report, the
- investigators said.
-
-
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