GETTY Mock-up image of a UFO buzzing Canary Wharf

Scott C Waring, a self-style ufologist with a following of tens of thousands online, and Tony Topping, who has appeared on TV as a UFO expert, concluded pictures of bright lights in the skies around Tower Bridge and Canary Wharf were probably emitted by flying saucers or other extra terrestrial crafts. They studied the photographs after they were shown to them by Express.co.uk. We sent the images taken in March to five established UFO investigators for their feedback as part of an investigation into why so many images of bright lights or other anomalies are being hailed as proof of alien visitations by so-called online UFO experts. The images were, in fact, just photographs of planes leaving or descending to London City Airport taken by an Express.co.uk reporter from the roof of the Northern & Shell building in Lower Thames Street at night last month.

JONAUSTIN One of the pictures of a plane (circled) that two UFO experts believed was an alien craft

The resulting pictures, which were unedited, appeared as blobs of light, similar in appearance to many of the alleged UFO captures which have previously been hailed as strong evidence for alien visitations. They were sent to the UFO experts, who were not informed they were pictures of planes, to investigate what conclusions they would reach. Two of the experts concluded they were likely to be conventional aircraft, while another, a former Ministry of Defence UFO investigator added they could also be Chinese lanterns or crane lights. However, Mr Waring and Mr Topping deduced that aliens had probably flown over London.

JONAUSTIN Another plane snapped by our reporter created this odd shape often used as a UFO sighting

UFOCASEBOOK A similar looking object which went viral online after being described as a UFO in the Australian ou

Scott C Waring [USD•FACEBOOK•SWARING]

These were their verdicts: Scott C Waring is a US ex-pat living in Taiwan and editor of website UFO Sightings Daily. The site has daily updates on alleged UFO footage and other alien-related posts. He regularly claims to have obtained conclusive proof aliens exists in his blog posts and appears to be a firm believer that they, not only visit Earth regularly, but have underground bases here: He said: "I tried to see if I could alter the photo to make out a helicopter or wings, but there is nothing there. "It's not a helicopter and it is not a plane. It is not a drone, because it is much too big, it looks car sized. "It does look like it is two separate glowing objects that are flying together. When I put them in negatives format, I can see it has no other structure but the glowing light around it. "No drone can do that. This has a high probability of being a UFO. "London is a city that has preserved hundreds of years of architectural marvels. The beauty of those old structures could easily draw the attention of aliens. They seem to be highly interested in learning about human history."

JONAUSTIN•SCWARING Scott Waring altered the colour of our plane pics to decipher them and concluded them as alien craft

Tony Topping [YouTube]

Tony Topping, 45, from Selby, North Yorkshire, is a UFO expert who tours conferences and gives interviews on TV and radio. He claims to have first had an alien encounter aged two and to be monitored by security services. He said: "It is quite surreal. I had a dream about UFOs over this location a few months back. "These images are pretty good. For your interest the MoD did a document called Project Condign funded to the tune of ££s the conclusion was in some cases that plasma discharge was responsible for this type of UFO. "Turn your attention to the Indian Press a few years ago and appearing in the India Daily was all kind of surreal information about UFOs. Real unusual as if an information leak was occurring from some kind of think tank and it was getting into the press. "The conclusion was the UFO is alien and might be a bio plasma type craft, they were detecting them with sonic booms. the craft is self replicating and intelligent. "I point this out to you as I find the contrast of information about this type of UFO interesting between two countries. "As for me I do think it is a UFO non human in origin. I have no doubt in my mind more will be seen in that area."

JONAUSTIN A crane light appeared like a floating red orb in our pictures

Nick Pope [YouTube]

Nick Pope, 50, worked for the MoD from 1985 to 2006, and between 1991 to 1994, investigated the potential threat of alleged UFOs. Now based in the US, he tour conferences and comments on the subject in the press. He said: "These don't strike me as being particularly spectacular and I suspect that what we're looking at here is either aircraft or helicopter lights, a Chinese lantern, or even a light from one of the cranes, reflected onto low cloud - which can occur in certain meteorological/atmospheric conditions. "Zooming in with pictures like this can be counter-productive, because one loses resolution and distortions increase, leading to a misleading impression that something is more structured than is, in fact, the case."

Scott Brando's Facebook profile picture [FACEBOOK]

Italian Scott Brando, 40, runs website ufoofinterest.org which exposes hoax UFO sightings and reports. He set out to find evidence of aliens, but after investigating thousands of cases, says there has not yet been an alien craft captured on film. Mr Brando initially asked for more on the location and timing of the sighting before saying simply: "In my opinion they are navigation lights by planes." He also provided a graphic showing how to identify aircraft lights at night including an image which looked like one of those we sent out.

LUFOS.NET A graphic provided by Scott Brando showing plane navigation lights at night

Nigel Watson [Nigel Watson]

Nigel Watson, 61, from Plymouth, Devon, is an author of several UFO books, including the UFO Investigators' manual, which explains how to carry out the research. He does not believe that a photograph has yet been taken of an alien craft. He said: "Since the images are out of focus and the motion of the lights is hard to determine. "Even without that information I'd say the lights from an aircraft - these consist of a green light on the right wing tip and a red light on the left wing tip along with three bright white landing lights. "If it is not on a steady course it could be a helicopter or even a drone carrying lights."

Before publishing we contacted each of the experts for their reaction to our findings. Mr Watson said knee-jerk assumptions were muddying the water for real UFO investigators. He said: "There are ufologists who are quick to brand anything unusual seen or photographed in the sky as evidence of an alien spacecraft visiting our planet. "On the other hand, there are sceptics who are equally quick to brand any UFO sighting or report as rubbish and come up with a suitable 'explanation' for them, which later proves as unlikely as the alien theory. "What we need to do is look at each case on its own merits before making a knee-jerk reaction." Mr Brando added: "Unfortunately, the trend is to establish or assume that any visible light in the sky is of alien origin. "It happens all over the world. I live in Italy and here too there are many self-proclaimed UFO researchers who, for their own interests, prefer to give an unconventional explanation because it's more fascinating, attracting more readers of books, magazines. "People have no interest to listen who speaks about aircraft lights (planes, helicopters) or chinese lanterns, nor to buy hypothetical books about lens flares, satellites and birds mistaken for UFOs. "As long as these self-styled ufologists prepend their interests to serious UFO research, the UFO phenomenon will always be treated as a joke."

Mr Pope said: "In The X-Files, Fox Mulder has a poster of a UFO on his office wall, captioned "I want to believe". "Many people in the UFO community want to believe so much in extraterrestrial visitation that every dot of light becomes - in their minds - an alien spacecraft. "This suspension of critical faculties is unhelpful to the subject and serves only to discredit not only the individuals concerned, but also the topic as a whole, with the wider public. "It's a classic example of a conclusion-led approach, where the 'expert' has the answer before the question is asked. "It's a kind of intellectual dishonesty and within the UFO community one finds it at both ends (true believers and die-hard debunkers alike) of the belief spectrum."

The Truth Is Out There: 150 years of UFOs Mon, July 3, 2017 Although many UFO sightings often have rational explanations, a small number truly are unexplained. Here's our pick of the most compelling UFO sightings from all over the world Play slideshow Getty Images 1 of 27 Flying saucer above highway, real or not?