Look up in the sky, it's a UFO

THROUGHOUT HISTORY, there have been tales of little green men from outer space. And, undoubtedly, this year, as it has been for generations, there will be a glut of of supposed sightings of unidentified flying objects.
There have been accounts dating back even thousands of years and a lengthy description of a "flying wheel" that Ezekiel encountered in biblical times.
So the subject matter isn't new and, in fact, I wrote the preceding paragraphs in the Toronto Sun back in February 1987, some 20 years ago.
The UFO topic seems to get bantered about on an annual basis and the reason for bringing it up once again was a recent report in Pilot magazine from over 'ome in which two airline pilots "witnessed" UFOs off the Channel Islands.
Apparently, 50-year-old Ray Bowyer, a captain with Aurigny Air Services, was in flight from Southhampton at 3 in the afternoon when he "saw a bright-yellow light."
Briefly this is Bowyer's report: "It was a very sharp, thin yellow object with a green area. It was 2,000ft. up and stationary. I thought I was about 10 miles away, although I realized it was approximately 40 miles from us. At first, I thought it was the size of a 737. But it must have been much bigger because of how far away it was. It could have been as much as a mile wide."
Later, as Bowyer approached Alderney, he noticed another object identical to the first one and Pilot quoted him as saying: "It was exactly the same but looked small because it was further away. It was closer to Guernsey. I can't explain it ... All I'm saying is that I have never seen anything like it before in all my years of flying."
So what are these UFOs?
Some would acquaint their "navigators" as fallen angels (demons) "masquerading as extraterrestials from another planet," and then others would blame it on hallucinations from drinking too much "bad coffee."
A steady flow of explanations seem to be in order every year, however, John Spencer, deputy chairman of the British UFO Research Association, was quoted as saying: "These types of sightings have been reported by pilots -- generally accepted to be reliable and sensible observers -- since the 1940s and they have excited attention to this day."
Of course, UFOs, crop circles and even cattle mutiliations have been subjects of countless late, late-night discussions with, seemingly, no solid conclusions.
What spurred my curiosity all these years was a November 1986 report of a walnut-shaped object, twice the size of an aircraft carrier, which apparently "chased" a Japan Air Lines 747 cargo jet over Alaska and it was "captured" on the radar screens of air traffic controllers.
Originally, both the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Air Force verified the large UFO had appeared on radar hovering within five miles of the cargo jet, which was travelling between Iceland and Anchorage, Alaska.
However, U.S. authorities later did an about-face, first calling the sighting a "split image" and then claiming it had been a computer malfunction.
But veteran JAL pilot, Kenju Terauchi, and two crewmembers didn't agree, saying they witnessed UFOs for more than 400 miles between Iceland and Alaska over a period of 32 minutes.
Terauchi later reiterated his claim that there were three UFOs -- one of spectacular immensity -- and two small, walnut-shaped craft with two panels of lights. The objects darted quickly and occasionally stopped suddenly -- once appearing in front of his cockpit. They instantly disappeared and reappeared.
"They were flying parallel and then suddenly approached very close," Terauchi said.
Although, there have been hundreds, even thousands of sightings, reported by what experts consider "laypersons," which have been mainly dismissed, it will be interesting to hear the scientific "take" on Bowyer's report.
Nick Pope, who at one time worked for the U.K. Ministry of Defence, was quoted in the same article concerning Bowyer as saying, "This is the sort of sighting that is taken seriously and should be investigated thoroughly." However, the current spokesperson for the ministry indicated they wouldn't be investigating the incident.
In addition to Bowery's statement, another unnamed Blue Island pilot also claimed he also saw a UFO underneath his plane.