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Report of commercial airline near-miss with UFO over Glasgow airport

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A report was released yesterday revealing that a commercial passenger aircraft carrying up to 200 people came with 300 feet of colliding with an unidentified object over Glasgow Airport in the United Kingdom on December 2, 2012.  The Airbus A320 airplane was making its final approach to Glasgow Airport when an object suddenly, and unexpectedly, passed about 300ft underneath it.  The A320 was descending into Glasgow in clear conditions with the sun behind the aircraft, when both the plane’s pilots saw the object around 100 yards away.  The pilot of the aircraft said the risk of collision with the UFO, which did not show up on his radar, had been “high”.

“We seemed to only miss it by a couple of hundred feet, it went directly beneath us. Wherever we were when we called it in it was within about 10 seconds. Couldn’t tell what direction it was going but it went right underneath us.”

The A320 was flying with its landing lights on, in clear conditions and at an altitude of about 4,000ft above the Baillieston area of Glasgow, when the pilot and co-pilot saw an object “loom ahead”.  The object passed directly beneath the aircraft before either of the crew members had time to take corrective avoidance action or had “really registered it” in their minds.  Both pilots agreed that the UFO appeared to have been blue and yellow or silver in color with a small frontal area.  The pilot asked the controller at Glasgow Airport if he was “talking to anything in the area” as he had “got quite close” to an object, travelling in the opposite direction, which had passed just below him.  The transcript of the communication captured the moment the pilots reported the UFO:

“Er yeah we just had something pass underneath us quite close and nothing on TCAS have you got anything on in our area.”

“Negative. We’ve got nothing on radar and we’re not talking to any traffic either.”

Search action was immediately initiated.  Air traffic control said they had no trace of any other objects on radar in the area at the time of the incident.  The final report ruled out balloons or other aircraft.  Pilots noted that the object was much larger than a remote-controlled aircraft.  It was also thought that a meteorological balloon would be radar significant and unlikely to be released in the area.  A glider was ruled out because of the constrained airspace and the lack of thermal activity (required for gliding) due to the low temperature.

The near-miss incident was classified as a category D degree of risk–the Board’s second to highest level of risk.

The report concluded:

“Investigation of the available surveillance sources was unable to trace any activity matching that described by the A320 pilot. Additionally, there was no other information to indicate the presence or otherwise of activity in the area.  Members were unable to reach a conclusion as to a likely candidate for the conflicting aircraft.”

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