A RyanAir pilot recently claimed he saw an unidentified flying object (UFO) while departing from a major London airport in 2022.
The pilot said he was traveling at more than 230 mph when a “black” object appeared within about 65 feet of the commercial passenger aircraft, the Irish Mirror reported Nov. 14. The pilot was on his way out of Stansted Airport in London, one of Britain’s major travel hubs.
Disclosure of the event came after a Freedom Of Information request was made to the Essex Police department in England, which sought data on all UFO reports from the last five years. The official incident summary states the plane was roughly 4,000 feet in the air, just over the St. Elizabeth Center, when the pilot allegedly saw the object traveling from north to south.
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The pilot conceded the UFO could have been a drone. But the aircraft was equipped with drone monitoring equipment that apparently did not pick up any such activity at the time, the Irish Mirror reported. (RELATED: Investigation Underway After ‘Extraordinary’ UFO Spotted Over Del Rio, Cops Say)
A handful of other UFOs were also allegedly spotted throughout the region in the same year. At one point, three different aircrafts reported seeing the same object near their planes at the same time, according to Essex Live.
Another report made in 2023 read as follows: “I would like to report a sighting of an unidentified flying object. The object appeared oval in shape and was a metallic colour with no apparent markings or lights. There were no conventional aircraft characteristics at all,” per the outlet. The object was allegedly moving too fast to be a bird and was definitely not a balloon.