Terrified airline pilot DUCKS as he sees UFO heading straight to cockpit

A terrified airline pilot ducked to avoid a UFO he feared was going to smash into his plane at 34,000ft.

The captain of the packed Airbus A320 spotted the silver object heading straight for the cockpit as his plane flew above Berkshire.

He was looking out of the left window a split second before the bizarre incident.

Terrified airline pilot DUCKS as he sees UFO heading straight to cockpit

The official safety report for the Airprox Board (sponsored jointly – and funded equally – by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD)) in relation to this incident is at the link below (but I'll embed images of the relevant pages for ease of reference):

www.airproxboard.org.uk...

I have to ask, is ducking part of the official manual on how to avoid oncoming objects when piloting a large aircraft?

Just goes to show that all the training in the world can't trump natural reactions.

When I get really tired and have to drive in areas that are not well lit I sometimes will see a person standing on the edge of the roadway. I have even moved over to make certain I do not hit them. About the time I get there I realize it is little more than a mirage. It is shortly after that I pull over and rest......

This pilot may have simply been tired. Or a UFO buzzed him.

reply to post by IsaacKoi


Good post, IssacKoi... as per usual.

I even logged in for once just to flag.

I wonder if he put in a claim for dry cleaning...of his underpants.
If the guy ducked, he must have been bricking it....
Funny the FO didn't see anything though.??
- "Did you see that" screams the captain as he ducks
- "see what??" say's the FO, somewhat bemused.

I hope this geezers a bit more alert and quicker on the uptake when they're taking off and landing.

For ease of reference, I'll paste the text of the Board's summary here :

The Board established that there did not appear to be any conflicting traffic on radar and that no TCAS alerts or advisories had been issued. The involvement of a meteorological balloon was ruled out and it was calculated that a helium filled envelope would have to be of the order of 1m in diameter to reach FL340, hence ruling out commercially available toy balloons. 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 from the low sun off one of the aircraft to the West, and of the pilot’s head movement as he looked forward. After some discussion it was decided that, although the reflection theory held some merit, the overall dearth of information relating to the event rendered a meaningful finding impossible.

Would a "helium filled envelope" of 1m really be required to reach FL340?

If so, would that really rule out commercially available toy balloons? I would have thought mylar balloons could be bought with a diameter of larger than 1m...

Edit - Mmm. Indeed, it looks like the Board was wrong to say that the need for a diameter of 1m ruled out commercially available toy balloons. A quick search on Google shows commercially available toy balloons on sale in the UK that can be filled with helium that have a diameter of over 1.5m:

www.signatureballoons.co.uk...

Chloroprene Balloons (sometimes referred to as Cloudbuster balloons) are manufactured from a mix of natural and synthetic latex. They are suitable for use indoors and outdoors and can be filled with helium or air. These totally spherical balloons can be printed on 2 sides with 1 colour and are the largest balloons we can print on. They are available in diameters of either 4 feet or a 5.5 feet and provide a cost-effective alternative to the exhibition spheres.

Also, one of the commonly available sizes of foil balloons is just a fraction under 1m (at 36 inches, i.e. 0.91m).

reply to post by IsaacKoi

Would a "helium filled envelope" of 1m really be required to reach FL340?

Perhaps. But that's not really a problem.
ukhas.org.uk...

The apparent direction and rate of closing make it a bit problematic though. If it passed over the cockpit it would have had to had a bearing dead ahead or close to it. A side approach is hard to reconcile.

ProfessorChaos
I have to ask, is ducking part of the official manual on how to avoid oncoming objects when piloting a large aircraft?

Just goes to show that all the training in the world can't trump natural reactions.

Indeed, years back while at Universal Studios I went on the Spider-Man 4D ride. Towards the end you are in a boxcar and Spider-Man is swinging you around with his web at the top of skyscrapers. At the end the web brakes and you start falling. The whole time I knew it was all just graphics and momentum (from the ride) that just before impact I braced myself covered my face and said "oh #" than I laughed my ass off at myself.

Chicken...

And he calls himself a man.

If it wasn't a ufo... I'd get it... But a real man will keep watching what the hell the hell the thing is that might kill him...

As if ducking would save him...

Some people let go of their stirring wheel, when something happens on the road... It will cause casualties when you let go your only way of control... In a plane this isn't any different, is it ?

If I was that guy, I would definitely mess with the one that made the chicken move public...
Pilots have an image to up hold.

reply to post by IsaacKoi


Just wanted to say best post i have seen in a while. Great job. I did not have to link out or try and understand from a video I could not watch. Very well presented and commented.

Bang up job, others could learn how it is done by this example.

Again, great job.

The Bot

I notice the date it happened was in the summer. Although I cant say I have been

aware of them lately ... familiarity blunts observancy ... but I have often seen large

inflated silver zeppelin shaped balloons hovering fairly high up, advertising some

show or new opening of a large used car lot etc. They are very large often the

size of a small aircraft. Could it be that one of them had escaped their

anchorage??

IsaacKoi
For ease of reference, I'll paste the text of the Board's summary here :

The Board established that there did not appear to be any conflicting traffic on radar and that no TCAS alerts or advisories had been issued.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't we talking about two different radar systems here?

The Air traffic control radar tracks objects from the ground radar and will issue alerts if they detect impending collisions, right?

In addition, doesn't the A320 have its own onboard radar and independent TCAS? (Traffic collision avoidance system). I thought it did and I found this in a search:

ainonline.com...

Airbus has chosen the ACSS T3CAS traffic management computer as the standard surveillance avionics suite for the Airbus single-aisle narrowbody family of aircraft (A318, A319, A320 and A321). T3CAS combines–in a single LRU–key surveillance avionics, including traffic alert and collision avoidance system (Tcas)

Modern radar isn't as shabby as it once was, so the chances of two radar systems failing to detect an impending collision points to two possibilities that I can think of:
1. Either the object was so small or otherwise had such a low radar reflection that it was below the detection threshold of the radar systems, which doesn't sound entirely consistent with the sighting of an apparently metallic object, visible at a great enough distance to sense an impending collision. Or,
2. As the board suggested in the report, perhaps it was some kind of reflection or other illusion. This would explain the lack of radar evidence of an impending collision.

Now for my next question, I would like to preface it with something I learned when the object from space (meteroid) impacted the Chelyabinsk area, when I subsequently saw dash cam video of the event and learned that dash cams had become quite popular in that area, due to things like insurance fraud, etc.

So it occurs to me that people are operating small motor vehicles with at most a few passengers and have recording devices of what the driver sees out of the windshield. My question is, would it make sense for commercial airliners which have much bigger safety/liability issues due to their much larger passenger loads to have at least what the drivers in Chelyabinsk had to record what is seen out of the cockpit?

I don't know the answer, but an event like this causes me to ask the question. It's a bit unsatisfactory that there's no real resolution to this event.

Also, can anyone explain what the "degree of Risk: D" means at the end of the report? I tried a quick search and got some risk stuff but nothing about that particular report.

Great post S&F

I remember a time in the late 90s I was doing a large theatrical production, filming in an independent film and going to my regular place of employment. Rinse and repeat for about a week. I was getting maybe half an hour of sleep in a 24 period.

Driving home one night from the film. I see a huge pile of dirt in my lane, I fully swerve out of my lane into the oncoming and of course there was no pile of dirt in the first place.

Not saying this is the case here but sleep deprivation can really mess with your head.

Mamatus
When I get really tired and have to drive in areas that are not well lit I sometimes will see a person standing on the edge of the roadway. I have even moved over to make certain I do not hit them. About the time I get there I realize it is little more than a mirage. It is shortly after that I pull over and rest......

This pilot may have simply been tired. Or a UFO buzzed him.

There are people who like to send HD cameras into space by balloon. The camera has to go into an insulated package (foam + aluminum foil) hanging from a number of balloons.

www.youtube.com...

Or one of those quadrocopter drones:

www.youtube.com...

Seeing a silver rugby ball shape isn't that improbable. It could be a deflated party balloon.

reply to post by stormcell


Not with a direction the UFO was going.

It was coming from the side, so most likely a balloon is out.

reply to post by IsaacKoi


checking out aircraft and airports...maybe they're assessing when we might become an interstellar species

reply to post by IsaacKoi


Always nice to hear of a newish incident, however as per usual this one will also probably remained unexplained forever.

Couple of things that struck me, if it was a balloon then wouldn't there be more probability of it flying into one of the engines as opposed to directly at the cockpit? Not an expert on high altitude weather conditions or aircraft engine intakes, but I find it odd that it flew towards the nose of the aircraft.

Also, if a pilot can't tell what a balloon looks like, then they shouldn't be flying. Doesn't matter what kind of balloon it is. I get the impression that the pilot didn't think it was a balloon, expecially seeing as this report was filed.

reply to post by IsaacKoi


Interesting case Isaac and also reminded me of this incident from Manchester airport back in 1995 -in both incidents the pilots actually ducked in their seats anticipating a collision and despite official CAA investigations both objects involved still remain unexplained.
Cheers!

Sounds like a typical ufo orb sighting of the silver type and TPTB know of them and have done since World War 2. The accuracy of the orbs flight should not be surprising, I've had them zoom towards me like a bullet and instantly stop dead right in front of my eyes just a couple of inches away and hover virtually still. These things can sure fly.

Good to see the pilot reporting this, just hope it's not a career killer for reporting the truth