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- A UFO? ACTUALLY IT WAS JUST OUR ALIEN FRIENDS IN THE NORTH 03/02/96
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- Daily Mail
- By Michael Harvey
-
- WAS it a bird? No - too big. A plane? Well, if it was, the two British Airways
- pilots had seen nothing like it this side of Star Trek.
-
- Illuminated by white lights like a Christmas tree, the strange craft flashed
- past their Boeing 737 in seconds coming shudderingly close.
-
- Bewildered, they continued their approach to Manchester Airport. They knew they
- had seen something. They just weren't sure what.
-
- But last night, flying saucer buffs were certain the jet had had a close
- encounter with aliens in the Pennine Corridor - Britains equivalent of the
- Bermuda Triange.
-
- Officially, a year-long investigation failed to come up with a convincing
- explanation.
-
- However, there were knowing nods at the British UFO research Association.
- Members are sure the mysterious craft was the Silent Vulcan - a triangular-
- shaped spaceship they believe has been cruising northern skies for 20 years.
-
- Captain Roger Wills ad First Officer Mark Stuart were almost ready to land
- Flight 5061 from milan when the craft hurtled towards them on January 6 last
- year.
-
- They radioed traffic controllers at Manchester and after landing, filed a
- formal report on an air miss - the technical term for a near-miss.
-
- Yesterday the findings by the Joint Air Miss Working Group said: "There is no
- doubt that the pilots both saw an object. Unfortunately, the nature and
- identity of this object remain unknown."
-
- It added tantalisingly: "To speculate about extraterrestrial activity is not
- within the group's remit." That sent morale at the British UFO Research
- Association rocketing. Members believe the report practically confirms what
- they have known all along - that E.T. has not gone home.
-
- "The report is remarkably open-minded." said director Philip Mantell. "It is a
- milestone in official recognition of the phenomenon of UFOs.
-
- "We have always contended that there is something out there which is beyond
- accepted science and now this is being reflected in the corridors of
- officialdom."
-
- Mr Mantell said the Silent Vulcan - named because it is shaped like the old
- British Vulcan bomber - has been seen all along the Corridor, from the Midlands
- through Derbyshire and into Yorkshire.
-
- There was a surge of sightings in the 1970s and late 1980s. One came from a
- Sheffield police ifficer. The Silent Vulcan widened its horizons in 1989 and
- 1990, with sightings in Belgium. The air force there even scrambled two F-16
- fighters, which tracked it by radar.
-
- They failed to find any UFO, but their readings showed it accelerated and lost
- altitude at speeds that would have turned any human pilot to pulp.
-
- "This latest report is the first officially recognised sighting of the Silent
- Vulcan along the Pennines," Mr Mantell said. "BA are to be complimented for
- treating this incident seriously."
-
- However, Captain Wills, of Normanton, West Yorkshire, and First Officer Stuart,
- from Congleton, Cheshire, are said to have been constantly ribbed by
- colleagues.
-
- "They're both fed up with hearing about it, but glad the authorities took them
- seriously," said one. "Both are level headed guys but they have had their legs
- pulled unmercifully."
-
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