Ryanair pilot reports sighting of eerie 'black object' flying close to plane

A Ryanair pilot notified police of an eerie sighting of a UFO while travelling at nearly 400 km/h, it has been revealed.

The incident was brought to light following a Freedom of Information request to Police in Essex, UK, asking for any sightings of UFO's that were reported to them over the last five years.

According to the pilot, the incident happened when the aircraft was taking off from Stansted Airport in 2022 when they observed a "black object passing within 20 metres of the plane".

The summary of the incident says:

"Ryanair was climbing out from Stansted Airport and was at a height of 4000 ft and just over the St Elizabeth Centre the pilot saw an object which he describes as 'black'. 

"It passed within 20 metres of the aircraft, the plane was travelling at 230mph (370km/h) and the object was travelling from north to south. 

"They have said that it was possibly a drone but the drone monitoring equipment at the airport was not picked up."

Online publication, Essex Live, reported that several additional reports of unidentified objects near planes in Essex had been reported in the same year, 2022, including one that was made after three separate aircrafts reported seeing an object near their planes at the same time.

"Incident placed on as UFO as three aircraft reported an object was in their vicinity.

"Info from tower reporting two planes have reported an object at about 500ft below them as they were coming into land on runway 22, the closest being 20km away.

"Approach (2-3 miles out) when their tcas (traffic collision avoidance system) alerted them to something at around 500ft.

"None of the pilots could see anything when they looked"

Another report from the same year gave a detailed description of the "object", stating,

"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.

"The object was travelling east to west just south of my address in a straight line and the altitude was level around 100ft at all times, I guess.

"The object was moving quickly across the sky very smoothly with no deviation in height or direction or without any effects of the weather is the only way I could describe it.

"It was moving too fast for a bird and definitely was not a balloon that usually gets affected by the wind causing them to turn or tumble. 

"This was unaffected by the light breeze blowing. This was a solid oval shape and was silent.

"This was not a drone or model aircraft due to the way it was flying. I viewed this from inside the rear of my home and then this object did not leave my sight until it was too far in the distance and obscured by another property.

"I have no explanation as to what this object could be."