An incident report states: "He was under the apprehension that they were on collision course with no time to react. His immediate reaction was to duck to the right and reach over to alert the FO (First Officer); there was no time to talk to alert him.
"The Captain was fully expecting to experience some kind of impact with a conflicting aircraft."
The UK Airprox Board, which is in charge of investigating near misses in British airspace, established that no other aircraft were in the vicinity at the time. It also ruled out meteorological balloons and toy balloons. Military radars were checked, but none had picked up the UFO.
The report concluded it was "not possible to trace the object or determine the likely cause of the sighting".
The A320 Airbus, which typically carry 150 passengers, was flying 20 miles west of the airport when the UFO was sighted. The incident happened at 6.35pm on 13 July of last year but has only been detailed now with the publication of the report.
- UK Independent