A conflict between a military aircraft and a UFO was amongst 11 close encounters reporter over the past decade. But it was probably a balloon or a parachutist rather than an alien.

The most recent incident occurred near Lambourne in April 2010 when a pilot saw an object that looked like a parachute or a hang glider that wasn’t observed by any other traffic in the area.

Also in April 2010 the pilot and passengers of an AS355 saw an unknown aircraft that looked like a gyrocopter in controlled airspace in London when it shouldn’t have been there.

And earlier that year the crew of an Airbus A319 saw a craft flying just 50 to 100 feet below them approximately 6k feet above Bristol. The crew reported the incident to Air Traffic Control (ATC) but nothing was observed on the radar.

The summer before another pilot reported a similar incident when a fast moving jet appeared to pass overhead in the opposite direction but once again nothing was observed on the radar.

Back in December 2007 two Super Puma helicopters returning from oil rigs near Aberdeen reported unidentified lights in the area but the craft were never discovered.

And a year prior to that at RAF Lyneham near Swindon an airforce crew reported: “Conflict between a military aircraft and an UFO whilst inbound to Lyneham at Flight Level 180.”

In the summer of 2005, the crew of a Boeing 737 reported “untraced objects” whilst flying over Norfolk. They were never identified.

And the previous winter three phantom military jets were reported to have infringed controlled airspace and caused a conflict with a Boeing 757 on its way to Manchester.

A “subsequent investigation did not identify the presence of military jets in the area at the time,” according to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

During the spring and summer of 2004 there were three reported UFOs. In May there were two separate reports of a green flare near Dover.

The CAA recorded: “At the same time of these reports there were multiple reports of space debrs falling from above.”

In June the pilot of a Boeing 737 reported a possible weather balloon or parachute to ATC in the Nottingham area.

But the MET office confirmed none of its weather balloons were in the vicinity at the time.

In August, the flight crew of a Boeing 737 were able to describe the clothing of a parachutist in the Luton area.