The pilot of a passenger aircraft has reported seeing a disc-shaped object, described as a «flying saucer», just feet away from the plane as it came in to land at Gatwick Airport.
The pilot issued an alert after the mystery object passed close to the commercial jet during its approach to the airport. The object was described as a disc, and the pilot indicated that it came within feet of the aircraft as it descended towards the runway.
Gatwick, one of the UK's busiest airports, lies to the south of London and handles a high volume of passenger flights. Because aircraft are moving quickly and at low altitude while on approach, any object seen close to a landing plane is treated as a possible safety hazard.
The pilot used the term «flying saucer», a phrase commonly used to describe an unidentified object with a disc-like shape. The exact nature of the object has not been confirmed, and no official explanation has been given for what was seen. Reports of this sort are often described as UFO sightings, but the label does not by itself say what the object was. The phrase does not necessarily mean the object was extraterrestrial; it simply means the object was not identified at the time.
Details of the incident remain limited. The initial report does not identify the airline, the flight's origin, the number of people on board, or whether other crew members also saw the object. It is also not known whether the object appeared on radar or was captured by any other equipment on the aircraft. The exact distance between the object and the aircraft has not been quantified beyond the pilot's description of it being feet away.
Pilot reports are considered an important source of information for aviation safety. Those flying commercial aircraft are trained to watch for hazards during landing and take-off, when the risk of collision is greatest. A sighting of an unidentified object at close range would therefore be expected to trigger an immediate report and a warning to those on the ground.
In the UK, reports of this kind are normally recorded by aviation authorities and may be reviewed as part of air-safety monitoring. Pilots are encouraged to report anything that could pose a risk to their aircraft, and such reports are taken seriously even when the object cannot be identified. The information can be used to spot patterns or to examine whether a particular area is seeing more reports than usual.
The sighting occurred as the aircraft was coming in to land, with the pilot describing the object as passing very close to the plane. The commercial jet was on approach to Gatwick when the alert was raised. No further information has been released about what the disc-shaped object might have been.
At this stage, the key facts are limited: a pilot on a passenger flight reported a mystery disc during landing at Gatwick, described it as a «flying saucer», and said it was feet away from the aircraft. What the object was, where it came from, and whether it posed a real threat remain unanswered.
