Pilots report UFO in southern Arizona

ARIZONA (KSAZ) - Earlier this year, a bright light from an aircraft that couldn't be identified was reportedly in the sky above southern Arizona.

Two experienced pilots noticed it was flying above their planes. But what's different about this sighting is that the two pilots were flying separate aircrafts in the same area around the same time and their experiences were recorded.

One pilot flies for American Airlines and the other for Learjet. They say the light was flying directly above them at about 40,000 feet in the air.

"Was anybody above us that passed us, like, 30 seconds ago?" the Learjet pilot asked.

"Negative," said the air traffic controller.

"Okay. Something did," said the Learjet pilot.

"A UFO!" said the second pilot.

The pilot of the Learjet works for Phoenix Air, a company based in Georgia.

"He's one of our senior captains. I would estimate he's had about 15,000 hours flight time," said Bob Tracey with Phoenix Air.

He was on an air ambulance mission with the U.S. Air Force and left southern California heading back to Georgia when it happened.

He told his boss all he saw was a bright light, but noticed it was going about the same speed as him. Even more odd was that air traffic control did not warn him of another plane approaching. His avionic system, which is supposed to warn him of oncoming objects, did not sense anything.

"Whatever it was was so overwhelmingly bright, he could not determine signature or profile of whatever it was," Tracey said. "It was like you're fast asleep, it's the middle of the night, and someone shines a light in front of your face. You can't see anything, but that bright light, that's how he explained it to me."

Minutes after the Learjet pilot's sighting, air traffic control notifies the pilot of an American Airlines plane in the same area.

"American 1095. Let me know if anything passes over you here in the next 15 miles," said air traffic control.

"Something like pass us over?" asked the American Airlines pilot.

'We had an aircraft in front of you, something passed over him and we didn't have any targets so let me know if anything passes over you," said the air traffic controller.

"I don't know what it was. It wasn't an airplane, but it was -- the path was going in the opposite direction," said the Learjet pilot.

Shortly after, the American Airlines pilot said he saw something.

"Yeah, something just passed over us. Like a -- I don't know what it was, but it was at least 2,000 to 3,000 feet above us. Yeah it passed right over the top of us."

"Can you tel lif it was in motion or if it was just hovering?" said the air traffic controller.

"I couldn't make it out if it was a balloon or whatnot, but it was just really beaming light or had a big reflection and several thousand feet above us, going the opposite direction," said the American Airlines pilot.

"Was it a Google balloon?" the air traffic controller asked.

"Doubtful," said the American Airlines pilot.

"UFO," said another pilot.

But the experienced pilots say this object didn't fly like a normal balloon.

"I don't know of any that would move laterally or even horizontally at 300 miles an hour and to be up at 37,000 feet, you'd expect of whatever platform it was had the capability of travel at that speed," Tracey said. "The bright light. The fact that ATC couldn't see it. The fact that he couldn't distinguish it and the fact that the onboard avionics didn't sense it. When you have two reports so closely together and with the credibility of American Airlines and the credibility of Phoenix Air validating that they saw something -- that raised a lot of suspicions."

The pilot of American flight 1095 later talked to local Texas TV station, KRBC in Abilene, and he said the object didn't look anything like an airplane.