Sir Francis Charles Chichester (17 September 1901 – 26 August 1972) was a British businessman, pioneering aviator and solo sailor.
In an interview from 1965 he stated: "It was a perfect shape, it was... shaped sort of more like a pearl... with a tail. And I watched this thing and suddenly it disappeared. And I was... I thought well am I seeing things? I had a very grueling flight. I had been waiting for... I had engine trouble, and I had been waiting for hours expecting to go in to the sea you know.
"However suddenly this thing reappeared coming towards me. Well I'm not going to let it go this time! I kept my look fixed on it and it [was] approaching fairly fast, and suddenly, gradually rather, it began to thin out and it vanished in front of me...
It came on, but instead of increasing in size, it diminished as it approached", he said. Did he see something from another world, or was it some peculiar kind of mirage on the horizon?Alas we will likely never know how far he was from land, and how high or close the thing was from the horizon."
