Incident · 6 January 1995 · Over the Pennines, about 8 nautical miles south-east of Manchester Airport, at 4,000 feet
Flight 5061 near-miss over the Pennines: a lit wedge passes a Boeing 737 on approach to Manchester
Also known as BA 5061 near miss, Manchester UFO near miss 1995, Pennines near-miss 1995, Flight 5061 UFO, Manchester airmiss 1995, Ringway near miss
At 6.48 pm on 6 January 1995 the two pilots of a Boeing 737 descending through 4,000 feet over the Pennines, on radar vectors for runway 24 at Manchester, saw a dark, wedge-shaped object with lights pass down the right-hand side of the aircraft, fast, close and in the opposite direction; the first officer ducked. They reported it at once to Manchester approach, which saw nothing on radar, and filed an airmiss report. The Civil Aviation Authority's joint airmiss working group investigated for a year with the radar and radio recordings, found no traffic, military or civil, that could account for it, and in 1996 recorded both the cause and the risk as “unassessable”.
The MoD's UFO desk received the Manchester controller's occurrence report, noted that the air defence staff had no concerns and treated it as a CAA matter; that is the extent of the papers in its files.
Sources: MoD file DEFE 24/1961, pp. 381–382 (The National Archives, opened August 2009); Hansard, 18 December 1996; the working group's report as transcribed by BUFORA (a secondary copy; the report itself, Joint Airmiss Working Group report 1/95, is in the House of Commons Library).
Facts and claims
- documented The Civil Aviation Authority's ATC occurrence report 95/00166B, filled in by the Manchester approach controller on 14 January 1995 and stamped into the MoD's UFO desk on 25 January, records that at 1855 UTC on 6 January 1995 a Boeing 737 at 4,000 feet, 5 nautical miles north-east of the Dayne beacon, “was being vectored from Dayne to the ILS for runway 24” when its crew “reported a lit object passing above, opposite direction and very close. There was no known traffic in the vicinity of [the aircraft] at the time of the report and no other contacts were observed by me at any time.” The box for separation lost is marked No, and the form was copied to DI55 (DEFE 24/1961, p. 382). Source: defe-24-1961.pdf
- documented A note attached to the report, dated 30 January, records that the desk officer spoke to a colleague: “no concerns from air defenders at this stage. CAA matter” (p. 381). Source: defe-24-1961.pdf
- documented Asked in the Commons about the incident “at 6.48 pm to flight 5061 on its descent into Ringway airport, Manchester on the night of 6 January 1995”, the transport minister John Bowis answered on 18 December 1996 that it had been assessed by the joint airmiss working group of civil and military representatives: “The group found that both the degree of risk and the cause of the incident were unassessable.” Source: api.parliament.uk (archived)
- claimed The working group's report, as transcribed by the British UFO Research Association, summarises the captain's account: over the Pennines at 4,000 feet, flying just above the tops of cumulus, “both he and the first officer saw a lighted … object fly down the RH side of the ac at a high speed from the opposite direction”, in sight for about two seconds, with “no apparent sound or wake. The first officer instinctively 'ducked' as it went by.” Source: noufors.com (archived)
- claimed The first officer saw “a dark object pass down the right hand side of the ac at high speed; it was wedge-shaped with what could have been a black stripe down the side”, somewhere between a light aircraft and a Jetstream in size; he “felt certain that what he saw was a solid object - not a bird, balloon or kite”. Both pilots drew it independently and agreed on the shape, and the captain, who had seen a Stealth aircraft, felt he would have recognised one. Source: noufors.com (archived)
- claimed The radio recording on 119.4 has the crew report at 1848: “we just had something go down the RHS just above us very fast”; the controller replied “there's nothing seen on radar”. A replay of the Clee Hill radar showed no other contact near the 737 on its downwind leg, and the group noted that a weather suppressor can make a radar disregard a poor primary return. Source: noufors.com (archived)
- claimed The group commended “two responsible airline pilots” for “their courage in submitting” the report, found that hang-gliders, microlights, models and military activity were extremely unlikely in the dark, the strong north-westerly wind and the high ground, and concluded that “in the absence of any firm evidence which could identify or explain this object, it was not possible to assess either the cause or the risk”: “The incident therefore remains unresolved.” Source: noufors.com (archived)
Connected files
Documents
- MoD file DEFE 24/1961: UFO reports, January–August 1995 (subject of) — Pages 381–382: the Manchester approach controller's CAA occurrence report on the near-miss of 6 January 1995 and the desk officer's note that it was a CAA matter
Organizations
- Ministry of Defence (UK) (assessed by) — Sec(AS)'s note of 30 January 1995 on the CAA occurrence report: no concerns from the air defenders, a CAA matter
Mentioned in this file
- Boeing (Organization)
- National Archives and Records Administration (Organization)
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