Multiple "UFO at airport" incidents

In a few days' time, there have been news reports of two cases of UFO sightings disrupting flights at airports.

The first instance comes from London's Heathrow Airport.  While actually taking place last July, the case is just now making the rounds in mainstream media.  The pilot of an A320 airliner reported that a "rugby ball-shaped UFO" came within a near miss of the aircraft and that the pilot actually ducked in the cockpit.  From the report: 

"The Captain ... perceived an object travelling [sic] towards them, at what appeared to be the same level, slightly above the flight deck windscreen. Having very little time to focus, he was under the apprehension that they were on a collision course with no time to react. His immediate reaction was to duck to the right and reach over to alert the First Officer [FO]; there was no time to talk to alert him. The FO turned and looked at him, thinking something was wrong with the aircraft.
The Captain was fully expecting to experience some kind of impact with a conflicting aircraft. His first words to the FO were, "Did you see that?", who replied, "See what?" The Captain perceived an object pass within a few feet above the aircraft. It could best be described as cigar/rugby ball-like in shape, bright silver and metallic-like in construction."

A preliminary investigation has ruled out balloons, meteorological phenomena, and other aircraft as possible culprits.  The object still remains unidentified.  Britain's Ministry of Defense stopped investigating UFOs in 1969 and has no comment on the matter.

Across the North Sea, a UFO disrupted flights out of an airport in Bremen, Germany when it appeared on radar screens at several different times.  One flight was cancelled and another was diverted. There was one eyewitness on the ground who described the craft as "looking like a plane but was louder."  Authorities are still calling the object "unidentified" but there as a similar incident last week turned out to be due to a remote-controlled, model airship.

And I believe that similar culprits may be found at the root of the Heathrow case.  Namely, I think that we may one day find that the UFO was in fact a drone and not anything alien or other-dimensional.

A while back, I interviewed a pilot for Virgin America airlines about UFOs.  While this pilot relayed accounts of coworkers having what I would call genuine UFO sightings, they expressed far more concern about the proliferation of drones in the skies and the competency (or lack thereof) of those controlling the vehicles.  I believe that this point will only grow in relevancy.

This is not to say that there have not been significant UFO cases involving airports.  One occurred in China in 2010 and another right here in Chicago in 2005.  Those still defy a concrete resolution.  In those UFO incidents, I am left with the most unsettling of questions:

What were they and what were their motivations?



Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets