The 2007 Alderney UFO Sighting Reported By A Veteran Pilot
Wikimedia CommonsAlderney, one of the Channel Islands, over which the UFO sightings took place.
Ray Bowyer was a 50-year-old pilot with more than 18 years of experience in the cockpit when he spotted a gleaming yellow light directly ahead of his airplane on April 23, 2007. Bowyer was piloting an 18-passenger plane that had just departed from Southampton, England, for a routine flight to the island of Alderney.
Bowyer saw the glow just after 2 p.m. Initially, he thought it was sunlight reflecting off glass greenhouses on the ground below, but it didn’t flicker as a reflection would. He grabbed his binoculars to get a closer look.
As The New Yorker reported, Bowyer then saw that the light was long and thin like a cigar with sharp edges and pointed ends. It wasn’t moving, and although its shine was “difficult to describe,” Bowyer “was able to look at this fantastic light without discomfort.”
A moment later, a second object appeared, moving in formation with the first. By now, others onboard had started to take notice of the “sunlight-colored” objects too.
Bowyer filed a report with Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority along with a sketch of what he had seen. The pilot also estimated that each UFO was about the size of a “reasonably large town.” The news made the rounds in local papers, but the incident largely went unnoticed until known UFO skeptic David Clarke published an audit 10 months later.
In the “Report on Aerial Phenomena Observed Near the Channel Islands, UK, April 23, 2007,” Clarke collaborated with various experts to see if there was any scientific explanation for the objects the Alderney flight passengers saw.
Ultimately, he concluded, “We are unable to explain the UAP sightings satisfactorily.”
After reading about these real UFO sightings, dive into the enduring myth of the Loch Ness Monster and some of history’s most credible sightings. Then, check out these eight unnerving “Bigfoot sightings” that made believers out of skeptics. Finally, read up on the eerie story of the Dover Demon.
