2007 Alderney UFO sighting
 The island of Alderney, above which the alleged sighting took place. | |
| Date | 23 April 2007 |
|---|---|
| Time | Approximately 14:09 |
| Duration | Approximately 0:09:00 |
| Location | Over Alderney, Channel Islands |
| Coordinates | 49°42′N 02°22′W / 49.700°N 2.367°W ⧼validator-fatal-error⧽ |
| Type | UFO sighting |
| First reporter | Ray Bowyer |
| Participants |
|
The 2007 Alderney UFO sighting was the claimed sighting of an unidentified flying object over the island of Alderney, in the English Channel, on 23 April 2007. Ray Bowyer, a pilot flying south towards Alderney, reported the sighting to Paul Kelly, an air traffic controller on the island of Jersey, around 14:09, at which point Kelly told him that a second pilot had reported a similar observation.
In Bowyer's report, he saw two bright, stationary objects; he subsequently gave various assessments of their size, ranging from that of a large aircraft to that of a city. Two passengers on Bowyer's aircraft also claimed to have seen unusual coloured lights at the same time. Bowyer made a formal report to the British Civil Aviation Authority, though no investigation was made into the incident. The incident has been widely cited by believers in ufology, though Bowyer distanced himself from the suggestion that he had claimed to see an alien vessel.
The report of the alleged sighting has been described as "one of the most impressive and perplexing testimonies to have found its way into MoD (Ministry of Defence) archives".[1]
Claimed sighting[edit]
On 23 April 2007,[2] Ray Bowyer, a fifty-year-old pilot with eighteen years flying experience for the Guernsey-based airline Aurigny,[3] was flying a Britten-Norman Trislander from the British port of Southampton towards Alderney, a small island near Guernsey in the Channel Islands, off the French coast.[3][1] His aircraft was flying at 4,000 feet (1,200 m), approximately 30 miles (48 km) from Alderney.[4] In the UK government's publication of Bowyer's report, the time of the claimed sighting was given as 14:09,[5] though The New Yorker reported it as 14:06 following a 2021 interview with Bowyer.[6]
Bowyer reported seeing "a cigar-shaped brilliant white light"[3] in the sky. He stated that he initially suspected that it might be reflected light from greenhouses on the nearby island of Guernsey,[1] but subsequently judged it to be stationary, approximately the size of a Boeing 737 and flying at an altitude of around 2,000 feet (610 m) at a distance of 10 miles (16 km) from his own aircraft. According to Bowyer's report, he approached the object, reassessing its distance as closer to 40 miles (64 km) and the size of the object as "as much as a mile wide".[3] In 2021, Bowyer said that the object was "the size of five or six battleships", and that it had been "a very sharply defined, solid, bright yellow-gold object with a couple of black bands on the side that were kind of shimmering".[1]
As he drew closer, Bowyer said that he looked at the light through his binoculars, and later remarked that he had been "able to look at this fantastic light without discomfort".[6] He reported seeing a second object shortly after the first, which he said had moved in formation with the first set of lights.[6] In the British newspaper The Evening Standard, Bowyer was quoted as describing this object as "exactly the same … [but] further away", being closer to the island of Guernsey. He claimed that it was "clearly visual" for approximately nine minutes.[3]
Bowyer claimed that the passengers on his aircraft had noticed the light, one of whom had tapped him on the shoulder to ask about it;[1] Bowyer handed him the binoculars to observe the apparent object.[6] Another passenger, named Kate Russell, later claimed that she and her husband John had seen the objects, which she described as "sunlight-coloured".[6] John Russell, meanwhile, reported seeing "an orange light … like an elongated oval".[3]
Second pilot's claimed sighting[edit]
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Bowyer claimed that he had radioed an air traffic controller between the two sightings, and that the controller had informed him that another pilot, flying to nearby Jersey from the Isle of Man, had seen a similar phenomenon. The British newspaper The Times further reported that Bowyer had been told that the object was visible on radar,[1]
When interviewed by the British magazine The Register, Paul Kelly, who had been the duty air traffic controller on the island of Jersey[6] and spoken to Bowyer during the incident, said that he had seen nothing on radar, but received what he called a "similar report" at the same time from a pilot from the Channel Islands airline Blue Islands. According to Kelly, the second pilot had been passing the island of Sark when he reported "an object behind him to his left". Kelly reported that "the description was very similar to Captain Bowyer's" and that the pilot had given its altitude as 1,950 feet (590 m), approximately the same as Bowyer had. Kelly further noted that a stationary object would not have shown on radar, but been filtered out as background noise.[4]
Approximately three weeks after the reported sighting, the British Ministry of Defence released information connected with the report, including a statement from a second pilot.[6]
Bowyer's report[edit]
After landing in Alderney, Bowyer made an official report to the Civil Aviation Authority, labelling the incident as a "near-miss"; his report appeared in Pilot magazine in June 2007.[3] Bowyer added a sketch of what he had seen to this report, in which he described the objects as approximately the size of a "reasonably large town."[6] Bowyer subsequently flew the return leg of his flight to Southampton, but did not see the apparent objects again.[1]
The British government's publication of the incident reads:
First object was bright orange/yellow. There was a gap in light or darker area. Second object was identical.[5]
By 25 April, the British Ministry of Defence had stated that it would not be investigating the alleged sighting.[7] Approximately a week after the alleged sighting, it stated the the incident had taken place in French airspace and so was outside its responsibility.[6]
Bowyer later reported to the BBC that he was "pretty shook-up" by what he saw, describing the incident as "pretty scary".[7] He rejected the suggestion that he had claimed to see an alien vessel, only remarking that he had "never seen anything like it before in all [his] years of flying."[3] According to The Times, Bowyer's report is "regarded as one of the most impressive and perplexing testimonies to have found its way into MoD archives".[1] In 2008, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported on the incident in connection with what it called a "huge rise" in claimed UFO sightings in the United Kingdom.[2]
Further reading[edit]
- Clarke, David (2015). How UFOs Conquered the World: The History of a Modern Myth. London: Quarto Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-78131-304-6. Search this book on
References[edit]
Bibliography[edit]
- BBC News (2007-04-25). "Pilot spots 'UFO' over Guernsey". Retrieved 2023-05-13.
- Campbell, Matthew (2021-08-01). "The truth is up there: how the Pentagon gave hope to Britain's UFO spotters". The Times. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
- Cleland, Gary (2008-02-07). "Huge rise in British UFO sightings". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
- Lewis-Kraus, Gideon (2021-04-30). "How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
- Haines, Lester (2007-04-27). "UK airline pilots spot giant UFO". The Register. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
- "'Mile-wide UFO' spotted by British airline pilot". The Evening Standard. 2007-06-22. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
- United Kingdom Government (2007-07-06). "UFO Reports 2007" (PDF). Retrieved 2023-05-13.
Coordinates: 49°42′N 02°22′W / 49.700°N 2.367°W
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