LONDON (Reuter) - British UFO enthusiasts were delighted Friday when an official committee admitted it was baffled by a pilot's report of a lighted, wedge-shaped object flying near his Boeing airliner.
``Despite exhaustive investigations the reported object remains untraced,'' said the report by the Joint Airmiss Working Group of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
A British Airways Boeing 737 was approaching Manchester airport in northern England on Jan. 6 last year when Capt. Roger Wills and co-pilot Mark Stewart saw the object.
It approached the right-hand side of the aircraft at high speed from the opposite direction. ``The first officer (Stewart) instinctively ``ducked' as it went by,'' the report said.
``It made no attempt to deviate from its course and no sound was heard or wake (wind turbulence) felt. He felt certain that what he saw was a solid object -- not a bird, balloon or kite.''
It said Wills described the object as having ``a number of small white lights, rather like a Christmas tree.''
The report said the object was unlikely to have been a military or light aircraft or a small flying device such as a paraglider.
``To speculate about extra-terrestrial activity, fascinating though it may be, is not within the group's remit and must be left to those whose interest lies in that field,'' it said.
One British UFO enthusiast, Eric Morrison, who believes unidentified flying objects may come from space, said he was not prepared to leave the matter there.
``Now that the CAA have actually come out with this statement saying that it was unidentified, we should go straight back to them and try and get them to give us a further statement and possibly even speak to the pilots,'' he told BBC television.