On the afternoon of April 23, 2007, Ray Bowyer, a pilot for the airline Aurigny with 18 years of experience, was flying south toward Alderney in the Channel Islands when he saw a brilliant yellow light ahead. At first he thought it was sunlight reflecting off greenhouses on Guernsey.
Through binoculars he saw a sharp, cigar-shaped object with dark bands, and then a second one behind it. He judged them to be stationary and very large, perhaps a mile wide. He reported them to air traffic control, who said a pilot on another aircraft had seen something similar. Two of his passengers also saw the lights.
Bowyer filed a report with the Civil Aviation Authority. Researchers later suggested earthquake lights, sun dogs or reflections, but the case remains one of the best documented airline sightings in Britain.