'Did you see that?' Heathrow jet pilot saw high-speed 'UFO' that 'passed within feet of his plane'
Daily Mail, UK
Sun January 5, 2014
Area: London
A pilot has reported a mysterious flying object passed within feet of his cockpit in the skies around London's Heathrow Airport.
The captain of the A320, flying to the west of the airport, was looking out the a cockpit window and saw a cigar-shaped metallic object flying at a similar altitude, seemingly directly at his plane.
A report on the apparent near-miss, which took place in July, has just been released by the UK Airprox Board, part of the Civil Aviation Authority.
It said: 'Having very little time to focus, he was under the apprehension that they were on a collision course with no time to react.
'His immediate reaction was to duck to the right and reach over the alert the FO (first officer); there was no time to talk to alert him.
'His first words to the FO were, "did you see that?", who replied "see what?"
The captain perceived an object pass within a few feet of the aircraft. It could best be described as cigar/rugby ball-like in shape, bright silver and metallic-like in construction.'
The pilot asked air traffic control if any other aircraft were in the vicinity, but was told that there none close by, although there were other airliners to the west.
Investigators ruled out the possibility that it was a meteorological balloon or a helium balloon.
The report added: 'Nevertheless, the A320 pilot was subject to a powerful impression of immediate danger, caused by his perception of an object closing rapidly on his aircraft.
'Although only supposition, members opined that this may have been due to a combination of a possible reflection of the low sun off one of the aircraft to the west, and of the pilot's head movement as he looked forward.
'It was decided that, although the reflection theory had some merit, the overall dearth of information relating to the event rendered and meaningful finding impossible.'
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