AN amateur videographer believes there’s nothing willy-nilly about the willy-willy he filmed near the Darwin airport.

Samm Acaster suggested the dust devil he caught on camera near Amy Johnson Avenue on Thursday was created by aliens trying to make contact.

“Blow me!!!! I was involved in this terrifying incident earlier today!!” he informed the NT News via Facebook when he sent a video of the willy willy.

“I’ve seen it a few times now. Pretty sure it’s an alien thing and they are trying to communicate,” he said.

While his overuse of punctuation marks raised alarms, the NT News believed his claims to be true.

Scribes at the Territory’s most popular newspaper have noticed a correlation between military exercises involving aircraft and an increase in the number of UFO sightings.

And, as anyone with ears would know, the biennial aerial war-games known as Pitch Black has been playing out in NT skies.

Some have suggested the increase in UFO activity is military aircraft mistaken for aliens, but the NT News has been informed that is what the aliens want the public to think.

In the name of fairness, the Bureau of Meteorology was approached for comment.

Senior forecaster Gabriel Branescu said willie-willies were normally caused by a strong rotating updraft.

He said the dust devils were not uncommon in Darwin and were often seen in Central Australia.

And, Mr Branescu said, willy willies had an extraterrestrial connection.

“They are a weather phenomenon that has been filmed on Mars,” he said.