Do you believe in UFOs? Though I’ve never seen one myself, I’ve always thought it to be a rather arrogant view to think that we’re the only beings in an entire universe that we have barely even begun to explore. My father and sister swear they’ve seen one, and given the hundreds of thousands of other people who have said the same, I think it’s a highly plausible claim.

A UFO about a mile wide was recently spotted by two separate aircrafts flying over the Channel Islands. Both crews and passengers report seeing the object. It’s one of the largest UFOs ever seen.

Ray Bower, 50, captain of the Aurigny Airlines flight, said that the UFO looked like “a cigar-shaped brilliant bright light.” He went on to say “It was a very sharp, thin yellow object with a green area.”

The object is said to have been about 2,000 feet up off the ground. It was not moving, stationed 40 miles away from the flight. Bower said that at first, it seemed about the size of a Boeing 737; later, he realized that to be as far away as it was, it would have to have been about a mile wide.

Bower also said that he’d never seen anything like it in all of his years flying. Moments later, Bower spotted a similar object to the west of the first one.

An official air-miss report was filed on the incident, though parts of the report have not been made public.

So what do you think? Is this the real deal? With so many witnesses, it had to be something.

Here are some fun UFO facts to get your Monday off on a freaky foot:

• Unlike many strange somethings, UFOs are pretty universal. They’re spotted all over the world.
• A sighting happens every three minutes. At this rate, we’ll be able to start hopping on board all of these UFOs and take vacations with whomever’s driving them. Europa, here we come!
• Also unlike a lot of other mysterious phenomena, UFO sightings are often accompanied by a photo, providing further proof of their existence.
• There was actually a UFO sighting in the Bible! It’s even considered the first recorded sighting. According to the prophet Ezekiel, there was a “great cloud with fire enfolding itself, a wheel in the middle of a wheel that descended and fired lightening bolts into the earth.” War of the Worlds, anyone?
• I can’t even believe this one myself, but according to a 1991 Roper poll, 4 million Americans think they’ve been abducted! That is a heckuva lot of abductions. You’d think we’d start missing people now and again…
• If you think your Uncle Ralph (or my dad) isn’t such a reliable source, consider that both Alexander Hamilton (in 1897) and Winston Churchill (in 1912) both claimed to have seen some kind of unidentified airship. In Hamilton’s case, the UFO was kidnapping a cow! Maybe South Park was onto something? Churchill’s report is considered to be the first official UFO report.