THE London Sun newspaper has apologised to aliens for linking them with the Church of Scientology.

The one-sentence mock apology, which is trending on Twitter as the "best newspaper apology ever", is the Sun's response to a demand by lawyers advising Scientology's UK branch leaders.

The church - which says humans are aliens who landed on earth - took offence when the Sun published an article about flying saucers sighted over its headquarters in the English countryside.

The church demanded the apology for the article, subtitled "Close encounter of the absurd kind", and got more than it bargained for.

The story began last Saturday when the Sun published a report about the pilots of three passenger jets who saw "two flat, silver discs" in the airspace over the Scientology HQ in West Sussex as they were queuing to land at England's second major airport, Gatwick.

The encounter, which happened on the morning of December 30 last year, lasted seven minutes and was substantiated by air traffic control staff who spotted six UFOs on their radar before they suddenly vanished.

The Sun quoted a former UK Ministry of Defence UFO investigator, Nick Pope, who called the sightings "spectacular" and said the evidence was "first rate - the witnesses are experienced pilots and there is radar evidence to back up their stories".

UK airport authorities said a Boeing 777 pilot first raised the alarm at 8.53am after spotting "two flat silver discs", followed minutes later by a Boeing 767 and an Airbus 319 which saw the same "saucer-like" shapes.

The 777 crew said they looked "man-made" and "toylike".

The Sun spoke with investigators, who had considered the objects might be balloons or kites - a notion dismissed by Mr Pope, who said "none of the theories hold water".

When the newspaper published the story with a Photoshopped picture of Scientology's West Sussex property, the church sent a letter of complaint, requesting an apology.

The Sun duly published it's apology yesterday:

"In an article on Saturday headline 'Flying Saucers over British Scientology HQ', we stated 'two flat silver discs' were seen 'above the Church of Scientology HQ'.

Following a letter from lawyers for the Church, we apologise to any alien life forms for linking them to Scientologists".

The perfect weapon against an alien invasion: Scientology's legal department // http://t.co/ulpA8jfdRc — Red Pill Junkie (@red_pill_junkie) June 13, 2013

The Church of Scientology's Sydney branch told news.com.au that its followers didn't believe humans were aliens.

"It's a common misunderstanding," Sei Broadhurst said.

Ms Broadhrust said she thought the Sun's UFO article was "ridiculous" and that the idea that there could be "UFOs is rubbish".

Here are some facts about Scientology:

1. It has been widely reported that Scientologists believe humans are alien beings called Thetans who had innumerable past lives in extraterrestrial cultures before arriving on Earth.

2. The "religion" was founded in 1952 by L. Ron Hubbard (known in the Scientology biz as "LRH"), an American pulp fiction author of science fiction and fantasy stories.

3. A one-time US naval officer, Hubbard created an elite inner group of Scientologists called the Sea Organization whose members wear naval-style uniforms and address each other as "sir".

4. Scientology aims to restore the Thetan to a state of "total freedom" through long courses of study and "auditing", which rid the Thetan of "engrams", recordings of distressing experiences from this and previous lives.

4. Hubbard wrote a book, Battlefield Earth, about the year 3000 when the earth has been under the rule of the alien Psychlos, a brutal race of giant hairy humanoid aliens who have enslaved the remnants of humanity who are used for manual labour or survive in primitive tribes in remote areas outside Psychlo control.

5. Celebrity Scientologist, John Travolta, made a film of the book, often referred to as "the worst film ever made".

6. Celebrity Scientologists include Tom Cruise, Lisa Marie Presley, Kirstie Allie and Taylor Dayne.

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