There are several interesting documents, including an incident that involved a near miss between an Italian airliner and a UFO over the skies of Kent in April 1991. The report, which was filed by the Civil Aviation Authority, describes how the Alitalia flight, on its way to Heathrow, had a near miss with a 'missile-shaped' object that was beige in colour, which moved in an east to west direction, across their field of vision. The UFO must have been close to the plane as the pilot called out 'Look out, look out' to his co-pilot (who confirmed the sighting.) Air traffic control also confirmed that their radar had picked up 'an object behind the aircraft quite clearly, primary return.'
This incident was not unique however, as there were two more incidents filed by the MOD in 1991 that involved near misses between aircraft and UFO's.
Four passengers aboard a Boeing 737 reported a 'wingless projectile', flying underneath the aircraft as they were taking off, whilst on a flight from Gatwick to Hamburg, in June 1991. They informed the pilot, who then reported the incident to the Ministry of Defence and the Civil Aviation Authority. Another report was made the following month by the crew of a 737 that was descending into Gatwick. The crew described seeing a 'dark, lozenge shaped object' zooming by the side of the aircraft. Air traffic control confirmed that they had a 'primary target' on their radar screens and warned another aircraft that was descending behind the 737 to take evasive action.
This aircraft had to take a sharp turn to avoid the unidentified object, which appeared to be heading straight towards them, but then turned away.
There was a full investigation of both of these incidents. One of them was officially reported as a near miss, with a suggestion that the object may have been some kind of balloon or perhaps a meteorological balloon. Personally, however, I find it highly unlikely that such a device would be allowed anywhere near the busy airspace over Gatwick airport.
There are also a few reports in the files of military aircraft pilots seeing unidentified objects, which have been verified on radar.
One of the most interesting files tells of a US air force fighter pilot based at RAF Manston, in Kent, who was scrambled to intercept a UFO that was allegedly as big as a B-52 bomber on his radar screen! He was ordered to fire a full salvo of 24 missiles, but before he could, the object vanished over the skies of East Anglia. The incident happened during the Cold War, in the late 1950's, but the case didn't emerge until the 1980's, after the pilot revisited the air force base for a reunion, where he met with some of his former colleagues and started talking about their experiences.
The pilot, Milton Torres, from the 406th Fighter-Bomber wing, was on 24 hour alert during the height of the Cold War, and was ordered to scramble his Sabre F-86D jet fighter at around midnight. As his plane reached 32,000 feet, he was told to intercept a mysterious object that RAF ground control had been watching for quite some time. As he got within 15 miles of the object, his airborne radar locked on. However, he could not see anything visually, despite the object appearing on his radar screen as big as a B-52 bomber?
He was then ordered to fire 24 rockets towards the object. He questioned the order as he had never been requested to shoot any aircraft before, especially over the English countryside. After confirmation came back from ground control, he started to ready his weapons when the object suddenly started to move, and disappeared from the scope. He reported what had happened back to ground control, who confirmed that the object had disappeared from their scopes at a fantastic speed.
The day after the incident, an agent from the National Security Agency (NSA) arrived at the base to debrief the pilot. He was told in no uncertain terms that what he had seen was top secret and wasn't to be debated with anyone. He was warned that he would be grounded if he broke his oath of security. He decided to keep quiet for the next 32 years, until 1988.
When the story broke, ufologists wrote to the MoD for the official records on the incident. Unfortunately, according to the MoD, all records prior to 1967 were destroyed every five years. The USAF also claim to not have any records regarding this incident.
Source: Cosmic Conspiracies
