Mysterious ‘Flying Man’ Buzzes Aircraft At 3,500 Feet
Pilots of a passenger plane over England were stunned recently, when an object they describe as a “flying man” buzzed past their aircraft, at a height of 3,500 feet.
The bizarre incident took place as the Airbus 320 was preparing to land at Manchester Airport on July 13, according to The Mirror. Appearing seemingly from nowhere, the mystery man passed within a hundred feet of the aircraft. The pilot and first officer, astounded after sighting the human UFO, reported the incident to air traffic control around 1:30 p.m. At first, they believed that the object was a paraglider, but did not observe a canopy. Controllers were unable to detect any sign of the flying man on radar, and a check of the area failed to turn up any paragliders, parachutists, or balloonists at the time of the sighting.
The flying man has since been dubbed the “Superman of Macclesfield,” as the Daily Mail notes. Observers have speculated that the flying man was utilizing a wingsuit, though there is no way to accurately assess the possibility. As The Inquisitr reported in 2012, wingsuits have been successfully utilized by skydivers to land without a parachute, though the practice is not common.
Is it a plane? Is it a bird? No, it’s a flying man! Pilots spot flying man at 3,500ft: http://t.co/uZtUEhHukt pic.twitter.com/SUmXMQLcXc
— TimelyPick (@TimelyPick) October 17, 2014
Officials with the UK Airprox Board, the body that investigates aircraft near-misses in Britain, admitted the situation was frustrating, due to lack of evidence. According to their report, the pilot and co-pilot first sighted the man when he was about 200 to 300 meters above the plane, in the 11 o’clock position. Flying past the left hand side of the aircraft, the man was only briefly observed by the flight crew, who had no time to take any evasive action. At the time the flying man was sighted, skies were clear, with a visibility of about six miles.
The human UFO pic.twitter.com/MPAwnWSj38
— Ian Rigby (@RIGGERZ_GT3RS) October 18, 2014
The report also addressed the unlikely possibility that the object was a balloon, noting that the pilots couldn’t rule out such an explanation. According to experts from the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, weather conditions at the time would also have made it impossible for an individual flyer to operate in the area. If anyone had been flying near Manchester, they assert, their equipment would have been obvious to radar.
Allowing that the incident was frustrating to both the pilots and the Airprox board, the report conceded that there is little way to corroborate the sighting of England’s flying man.
[Image via The Daily Mail]
