As the captain of Flight AZ 284 began his descent into Heathrow, he saw something alarming overhead. Shaped like a missile, the object suddenly veered across the airliner's path causing the pilot to shout 'Look out!' as he attempted to avert a mid-air collision 22,000ft above the Kent countryside. Travelling at an estimated 120mph, it passed less than 1,000ft from the passenger jet before disappearing from radar screens, leaving the pilot and accident investigators baffled.

Secret documents released for the first time reveal that Ministry of Defence staff accept that an Unidentified Flying Object zooming above Lydd caused the nearmiss. The incident took place at 7.58pm on April 21, 1991, and was investigated by the Civil Aviation Authority and military experts. Having ruled out the possibility of it being a missile, weather balloon or space rocket, the MoD was forced to conclude that it was a genuine UFO and close the inquiry. The unexplained close encounter is one of many recounted in military UFO documents released today by the National Archives. The Alitalia aircraft was on a routine flight from Milan to Heathrow with 57 people on board when the ten-foot long object, which had no exhaust flame, was spotted by pilot Achille Zaghetti.

He told accident investigators: 'I saw for about 3.4 seconds a flying object, very similar to a missile, light brown coloured. 'At once I said, "Look out, look out" to my co-pilot, who saw what I had seen. 'As soon as the object crossed us I asked the ACC (area control centre) operator if he saw something on his screen and he answered, "I see an unknown target 10nm ( nautical miles) behind you".'   Full Article