What happened
Bowyer first took the light for sun glinting off Guernsey greenhouses, then for a stationary object about the size of a 737 at 2,000 ft and 10 miles off. Deciding it was nearer 40 miles away, he estimated it at "as much as a mile wide." Through binoculars he saw a sharply defined yellow-gold object with a darker band, "like a CD on its edge," and later a second identical one farther west. He watched for about nine minutes. Patterson, flying separately, reported a similar object in about the same place. Passengers described an orange light "like an elongated oval." Bowyer filed a near-miss report with the Civil Aviation Authority. The Ministry of Defence said it happened in French airspace and did not investigate.