Notes of telephone interview with Kate Russell

by Jean-Francois Baure 22.07.07 (minor grammatical edits, M.Shough, 16.01.08)

The UAPs were observed below the horizon, when Ray dropped the nose of the plane down.

Kate initially thought the most distant UAP was coming from Alderney Airport, but she later located the two UAPs between the two islands of Alderney (visible) and Guernsey (not visible).

It looked as if the largest UAP came out from the water (seen against the sea). Kate saw the UAPs twice, during a few minutes, and between the two sightings the one above water seemed to have moved (though they were both seen stationary).

The UAPs were steady lights, no brightness fluctuations.

The weather and the visibility were not very good, Kate did not pay attention to the sun's direct visibility.

About the lighting uniformity: no crepuscular rays or godrays are reported, nor sun glints/sun glitters on the sea, nor strong contrasts between surface areas directly illuminated by the sun versus darker areas in the shadows of the stratus layer above. Kate acknowledges it is difficult in this case to discriminate between a phenomenon emitting its own light or just reflecting another light source, but those bright UAPs were not reflecting on the sea surface or illuminating their close environment. On the contrary, the background of the UAPs appeared darker, maybe due to the visual contrast with the brightness of the UAPs.

A small ship, probably a fishing boat, was just discernible and possibly close to the largest UAP. But it was hard to tell if it could have seen the UAPs. The UAPs' angular size appeared larger than any light reflections that could have originated from a ship.

At landing, Kate didn't have the feeling of having witnessed something strongly unusual until Ray asked some passengers if they had seen what he had himself observed. Kate is inclined to think she observed phenomena of natural origin that we may understand later.

Kate clearly stated several times that the UAPs were seen below the horizon during the two sightings (being seated in the 4th rank, when Ray pushed the nose of the Trislander downward). The main one looked as though it was coming from the water (Kate did not give a clear answer for the relative elevation of the two UAPs, Ray's diagram being more explicit for this point). The light phenomena were perceived as anomalous for their persistence and their size (lights bigger than those that could possibly have originated from a reflection on a ship's surface) but to Kate it was nothing extraordinary until the landing and Ray's questions related to what he saw.