British airline pilot says he has seen mysterious lights over Europe six or seven times
Steve Frazer has been flying for 27 years, 20 of them as a captain. Since 2022, he has seen flashing points of light around Belgium six or seven times, most recently in October. He says they weren’t refueling aircraft, and he still hasn’t found an explanation.
Lights near Brussels
Steve Frazer, 48, from Sandbach in Cheshire, England, told the British news agency SWNS about his sightings. He first saw the lights in 2022 while flying near Brussels: small, flashing points of light that moved across the night sky and then vanished. On that occasion, he also spotted what looked like an aircraft circling in the distance.
At first he thought they were military refueling aircraft, but he later ruled that out. He says their speed and movement didn't match those aircraft, or the Starlink satellites he knows well.
Footage from the cockpit
Frazer once flew toward the lights for a while but never caught up with them. In his footage, the lights appear to rise from the ground as the plane passes Brussels on a northwesterly route back to the UK. Frazer says the lights were heading roughly northwest, possibly toward the Atlantic.
Other pilots saw them too
Frazer said a colleague saw lights on a flight back from Lithuania, in roughly the same area and direction. According to the report, pilots flying over the Netherlands have reported something similar, and one radioed to ask whether there was military activity in the area. The reports don't name Frazer's airline, and no independent source has confirmed the other pilots' accounts.
What researchers say
Filmmaker Mark Christopher Lee, who calls himself an alien hunter, said the case deserves to be properly logged. He believes secret military drone tests are the most straightforward explanation for recurring sightings like these. Gary Heseltine, editor of UFO Truth Magazine, said the sightings remain an enigma worthy of scientific research.
The UK has no central UFO reporting system: the Ministry of Defence closed its UFO hotline in the 2000s, and many police forces no longer track sightings.
The sober take
What is established: an experienced commercial pilot has seen flashing points of light around Belgium several times since 2022, and filmed them once.
What is not proven:
- The footage doesn't show the lights' distance, altitude or speed.
- The impression that the lights rise from the ground could be a matter of perspective: from an aircraft, it's hard to judge how high a distant light is.
- Only Frazer mentions the accounts of his colleague and the Dutch pilots, and it isn't known whether anyone reported them officially.
- The case comes from a single news agency story, with no independent confirmation.
Possible everyday explanations:
- Military aircraft or drone exercises: Frazer's own first thought, and what Lee considers the most straightforward explanation.
- Flashing aircraft navigation lights at a great distance.
- Satellites: Frazer rules this out, but no independent analysis has been done.
What would help: the exact time, location and direction of the sightings, so the footage could be checked against air traffic data, and an official report to air traffic control.