I am a Boeing 747 pilot – I’ve seen UFOs defying all known tech & I captured a cigar-shaped object on camera
A BOEING 747 captain with some 9,500 hours of flight time at controls has told of his bizarre encounters with UFOs while taking to the skies.
Christiaan van Heijst explained he has witnessed objects which appear to exceed all known technology as they appeared to hit hypersonic speeds of up to 23,000mph.
The 39-year-old, from The Netherlands, is a respected airman and an an award-winning aerial photographer - and yet he has seen things he cannot explain.
UFOs are traditionally a highly stigmatised topic - often being dismissed off hand as nothing beyond conspiracy theories or something for the world of cranks.
But in recent years the conversation has moved, with even the US government confessing their are things in the sky which they as of yet cannot or will not publicly identify.
The topic even has a new name - UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon).
And with former US military pilots coming forward to tell about their own unexplained experiences, that piqued the interest of Christiaan.
"I realized that what they described sounded very much like some of the strange things I have seen years before," the pilot told The Sun Online.
"I always thought it was some 'military stuff' I had seen, but now it was possibly something else entirely that even stunned some of the best US military pilots on record."
Christiaan has been flying for 20 years - starting out as a champion aerobatics pilot before moving over to commercial planes.
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He has close to 9,500 total flight hours, and 6,000 of them on the Boeing 747 - one of the world's largest and most popular aircraft.
And he while he says some 99 per cent of the weird stuff he sees in the sky can be dismissed, there are still a "handful" of sightings which for him defy explanation.
Christiaan emphasised that as a pilot, he is trained to spot things in the sky - with his main objective when he's at the control being to keep his plane safe.
"If I see something that catches my eye, I immediately want to know if it is another aeroplane, something weather-related, military or anything else that might jeopardise my flight. Anything else is secondary," he told The Sun Online.
"That is also why airline pilots are credible 'trained observers': we don't search for UAP, we evaluate everything we see based on our thorough knowledge of aerial observations, meteorological experience and wonder if anything has a direct influence on our flightpath or aeroplane."
And for Christiaan, one of his most compelling and strange sightings was over Greece as he was flying near USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier and her strike group.
He was flying a Fokker 50 at the time and witnessed a bright light appear at an extremely high altitude - moving at an approximate speed of up to Mach 30 (23,000mph).
"No known physics can describe what that light/thing did, for as far as I know. It left no trail or anything like it, just instant speed and poof… gone," said Christiaan.
We just have to stay open-minded to the 'one percent' that is genuinely unknown
Christiaan van Heijst
He is unsure if his sighting was connected with the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier down below, which was carry out missions linked to the Iraq War in September, 2005.
Other unexplained encounters include a falling light moving "very fast" as it plunged towards the ground - with no information on the object from air traffic control in July 2005 as he flew over Germany.
And another saw his Boeing 737 encounter a ball of white light flying over the Adriatic Sea in February 2009.
The light fell towards the sea before disappearing beneath the surface without a splash.
Christiaan also shared with The Sun Online what appears to be a cigar shaped object that he took in January 2010 - with his encounter with the object lasting over an hour.
He was flying from Amsterdam to Malaga at 41,000 feet when they spotted the shape around 100 nautical miles ahead of them.
Air traffic control told them there was no other aircraft in the area.
The object appeared to be large and stationary, hanging in the sky and blocking out part of the sun.
It was flying much higher than commercial air traffic, and military air traffic control denied there was any activity in the area.
Christiaan snapped a picture, which after being enhanced by an AI system appears to show a black shape hanging in the sky
The photo being analysed by IPACO, which is run by the French space agency's UFO investigation group GEIPAN.
Christiaan does not have a theory on what these objects may be - but he is hopeful that one day there will be explanation.
And he hopes the stigma around UFO discussions will continue to break down.
"Even rational explanations of some of the sightings might help other pilots to identify some spectacular, but mundane things they see from above," the pilot told The Sun Online.
"We might actually stumble on a rare and new atmospheric phenomena, but the only way we can be sure is to collect data and analyse it without bias."
Christiaan said he used to "disregard" his own sightings - fearing they could be "too far fetched for me to seriously contemplate".
"Every once in a while the topic comes up among colleagues, though I rarely start the conversation myself," he said.
"Some of my colleagues have seen some truly extraordinary things during their career, but they only discussed it with me once they felt they wouldn't be [ridiculed]"
He went on: "Personally I'm not afraid to talk about this topic as I try to steer away from speculating about the origins or nature of what it could be.
"I just want to know what it is I've witnessed and if it is of any
concern for the safety of my flight."
Christiaan added: "It was until somewhere in the 1800s that the idea of 'rocks falling from the sky' was regarded as
absurd and in the realm of fantasy, today they are commonly know them as meteorites and part of nature.
"Getting rid of the stigma is a process that takes time, but we're getting there.
"Step by step."
He urged aviation and security agencies around the world to continue collecting data on the phenomenon - and added he was pleased that discussion is opening up in the US.
"I doubt we will ever hear all the US military and intelligence agencies know about 'it' because of obvious national safety concerns," Christiaan told The Sun Online.
";But I believe that a general acceptance of the subject will eventually create a snowball-effect that might result in some form of disclosure or understanding."
Is it aliens or some sort of global conspiracy? Christiaan says that is a "tempting trap" to fall into - but he simply urged further investigation.
He added: "Only by collecting data can we start to analyse whatever is going on.
"We just have to stay open-minded to the 'one percent' that is genuinely unknown, whatever it is. I can't wait to find out what I've seen."
US lawmakers set up new Pentagon investigation after a stunning string of leaked videos which showed military encounters with UFOs such as the infamous "Tic Tac".
It marked an incredible turnaround after the government dismissed UFOs at the conclusion of Project Blue Book in the 1960s.
The debate which was for decades considered a fringe and damaging topic is now being openly spoke about by very senior figures, including former President Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Christiaan's aerial photography can be viewed on his and his - and he also recently gave an interview about his UAP sightings with on YouTube.
