Alien Lore No. 140: UFO and jet in near-miss over London

Recently released British UFO/alien files tell the tale of how a passenger jet on its landing approach at Heathrow International Airport had a near collision with a UFO.

An Alitalia jet Captain, Achille Zaghetti, was at 22,000 feet when he saw a brown, 10 foot-long, missile-shaped object a quarter mile above him. “At once I said, ‘Look out’ to my co-pilot, who looked and saw what I’d seen.”

Air traffic controllers that night reported a UFO on their screens. The incident in 1991 over Lydd, Kent, was investigated — but after ruling out a missile, weather balloon (shades of Roswell!), or stray space rocket, the encounter was shelved.

“As soon as the object crossed us I asked to the ACC (area control centre) operator if he saw something on his screen and he answered 'I see an unknown target 10nm (nautical miles) behind you’,” said the Pilot Zaghetti.

Another document describes Southern TV broadcasting a story about a 14-year-old boy who reported seeing a missile that very night, flying at low level before climbing through the clouds and disappearing.

Radar images show the UFO was initially thought to be a cruise missile. . .but it was quickly determined this was not a military weapon.

By July 2 a report concluded that the object had not come from the Army firing ranges in the Lydd area and that there was no known “space-related activity” that night.

An anonymous Whitehall official wrote: “It is our intention to treat this sighting like that of any other Unidentified Flying Object and therefore we will not be undertaking any further investigation.”

There were, however, other incidents recorded the same year: 1) In June 1991, four passengers on a Dan Air 737 saw a “wingless projectile” pass beneath the aircraft as it climbed from Gatwick Airport; 2) on July 15, the pilot of a Britannia Airways 737 reported seeing a “small black lozenge-shaped object” travelling at speed as they approached Gatwick. Neither of these incidents were heavily investigated and all three were more or less forgotten.

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