After the UK's Essex Police was served with a Freedom of Information request, a collection of reports detailing many UFO encounters in the region were made public.

Among these was a Ryanair pilot's experience in 2022, when he was flying an aircraft close to Stansted Airport and had an extremely close encounter with a UFO.

Based on the police report: "As the Ryanair aircraft ascended from Stansted Airport at a height of 4,000 feet, the pilot spotted an object that he described as 'black' just above the St Elizabeth Centre.

“It went from north to south and passed within 20 metres of the aeroplane, which was moving at 230 mph (370 km/h).

“They have said that it was possibly a drone but the drone monitoring equipment at the airport has not picked it up.”