An American Airlines pilot had reportedly contacted air traffic control during a Sunday trip after spotting a strange object moving fast over his jet.
Cockpit audio of the incident revealed that an unlikely encounter between Flight AA2292 and the unidentified object occurred at around 1 p.m. above a remote corner west of Des Moines.
Radio interceptor Steve Douglass said that he clearly heard the radio transmission.
“Do you have any targets up here?” the pilot of the Airbus A302 asked. “We just had something go right over the top of us.”
“I hate to say this but it looked like a long cylindrical object that almost looked like a cruise missile type of thing – moving really fast right over the top of us.”
Douglass insisted that air traffic control was not aware of any significant military aircraft presence but acknowledged that the area was close to the White Sands Missile range, a military testing base.
The flight company commented on the incident, saying: “At this time, we do not have any indication the radio transmission was from the flight crew onboard American Airlines Flight 2292 on Feb. 21.”
