Notes of interview with Capt Patrick Patterson, Blue Islands Airways

Dave Clarke, 14 December 2007

PP: I remember the incident quite clearly. It was hazy. What I saw was not "a mile wide" or anything. I saw something of a yellow colour like a Trislander - their [Aurigny] aircraft are yellow coloured. But Air Traffic Control say there was nothing to the west of Alderney because all aircraft were using the [R41?] airway which means they were to the east of the island. It appeared to me to be to the west or northwest of the island, which would have been on the wrong side. What I saw was in haze and was essentially just a colour in the haze. I couldn't honestly say it was an object, it was not very sharp, just something beige yellowish in that area. It wasn't self luminous. It was visible by light reflecting off an object, but hazy, not like a bright reflection from glass.

DC: Have you ever seen something like this before?

PP: No, I haven't. The thing is we didn't notice it until we'd gone past when we were asked to look. We were descending. It was hazy, but not big layers of cloud. If there'd been an object a mile wide as we were coming down we probably would have noticed it as we passed. But we didn't notice anything until our attention was drawn to it because it was sort of in our eight o'clock position behind us and I had to put my face right against the window to see it.

I know Ray [Bowyer] fairly well and he's not the sort who sees things, he's a straightforward sort of bloke. But I didn't see anything a mile across [referring to an interview with Capt Bowyer on TV's 'Richard & Judy' show] - that would have made my eyes open wider! Well, there could have been a large vessel on the sea in that position, but he's a fairly experienced pilot and I don't believe he would he would have said it was airborne if it was really at sea level. On the other hand, haze smudges the outlines of objects and might make them appear a little larger.

I couldn't see the horizon clearly from our position, just a couple of miles ahead and obliquely down. I know I could make out Alderney, but only just. And the object, because it was hazy, seemed to me to be roughly west abeam, possibly slightly north of that position. But things were very hazy, it was very difficult to see the horizon.

DC: Ray mentions seeing two objects, doesn't he?

PP: Yes. I don't know if the angle of the sun could have been right for some kind of refraction effect? What I saw did not have a sharply-defined outline, it was really just a spot of yellow or beige colour. I wouldn't mind saying, yes, I saw it had three edges etc, but I didn't, it was just a smudge.

What else would I compare it with? Well, who knows what the British and French Navies do in that area? They may have been dragging some kind of balloon or airship. They are always doing things that they don't tell people about.

None of the passengers saw anything, neither did my co-pilot. Because I was sitting on the left side of the aircraft I was able to see behind. He said, 'Let's have a look!' but he wouldn't have been able to reach over far enough, and when I looked back I'd lost contact with it myself. It was visible for about a minute but I was distracted and had to attend to things in the cockpit. I don't know whether I lost sight of it due to distance or weather.

The size of the object was larger than a Trislander would have been in that position, judging by the size of Alderney. Probably four or five times the size if my judgment of distance and elevation is correct. In relation to the position of Alderney that could then mean an airship or a balloon. If a Trislander is something like 50ft long then we're talking about 150-200ft if my estimate of the angular comparison with the island is correct, although again, because haze blurs outlines you might think something is larger than it really is because it's diffuse. What I wrote in my report, straight away after landing, that's the closest I could get to saying it was something, a smudge of colour that was not at sea level and was not attached to the land.

There are all sorts of rocks to west of Alderney, covered in guano in places. Who knows, if you get the right reflection off that . . .? But I don't know why it would be yellow, because I have a recollection that it was a definite yellowish beige. Maybe the haze discoloured the reflected sunlight? You'd have to be in the right position, but perhaps Ray was in cruise without changing altitude and was able to see a reflection for a long time, whilst we were on the way down and maybe we soon moved out of the band where we were able to see it?

It didn't appear to move. Bearing in mind that we were receding and descending it seemed to remain in a constant position with respect to Alderney.

It was not bright. It didn't appear to be emitting it's own light. It was substantially dimmer than sunlight. Just something yellowy or beige in colour.

DC: How long have you worked for the Blue Islands company?

PP: I've been with the company for 3 years. I have nearly 3000 hours of flying experience in total, something like 2500 hours as pilot in command - I stopped counting some time ago! This is a familiar route. We've been working it for a year or so. We're flying in the Channel Islands all the time.

DC: Have you ever seen anything like this, or been asked to look for anything like this, before?

PP: No.

DC: Or spoken to other pilots who have?

PP: No, only Ray. And I've seen a lot of weird stuff in aviation, but nothing like that!

As to what it was, bear in mind that it didn't move or follow me about. My best guess if wasn't a Trislander or a drone or balloon being dragged behind a ship or a reflection off a rock or something, then - a weather phenomenon. I didn't have any strange feelings of fear or shivers down the spine or any reactions like that.

Paul Kelly, the Air Traffic Controller, called me up and said "Look. we've got the MoD crawling over this one. Can you write down what you saw?" So I did. They said the radar had something. But you know the difference between primary and secondary radar? With inversions it could be reflecting off a rock or a ship or something miles out in the ocean, and height is not known. I've had experience of these things before. ATC calls you up and says "We've got something here but we suspect it might be a reflection off a ship, and it turns out to be nothing to worry about. As I said to Paul, if you had the ability to travel across space and time why would you hang around Alderney?

I heard the French space agency were looking into this. They called up my company and made a request to speak to me, but it got turned down. It wasn't my decision, I knew nothing about it.

It wouldn't surprise me if the French, British or US have something years ahead of anything we know about and are testing it out to see if we can detect it.

(Transcript of shorthand notes from telephone interview by Dave Clarke)