Of course UFOs exist – one nearly landed on my car

Claims about the existence of UFOs in the US Congress hearing this week make complete sense to those, like me, who have seen them

Apparently, UFOs and extraterrestrial life is an “open secret” in the US military. Three whistleblowers have claimed the US is “hiding evidence of UFOs that “defy physics as we know it”.

The hearing in Congress that took place this week aims to uncover “the biggest cover-up in history”. “We’re not bringing little green men or flying saucers into the hearing – sorry to disappoint about half y’all – we’re just going to get to the facts,” said representative Tim Burchett in the opening statements.

It’s explosive stuff.

But I’m not holding my breath that the truth that is really out there will in fact come out, or that it will win over the sceptics. Which is shame... because of course UFOs exist – one nearly landed on my car.

It happened one afternoon in the late 1990s. I was heading back to London down the motorway – my mum was driving me and my dad back from lunch at a family friend’s house in the countryside – when we suddenly saw this enormous bright light engulf us. It was terrifying. I was sitting in the back of the car as my mum swerved into the hard shoulder. It all happened so quickly.

At the time, I thought it might be a plane landing on the motorway – but there was no noise. Just this enormous bright white circular-shaped light in front of us, then we were underneath it. It seemed so massive; for all I knew, it could almost have been a football field size.

To this day, we can’t explain it. It vanished as fast as it had appeared. We pulled ourselves together and drove home. I’m not sure how many cars were around at the time; I was too blinded by this bright light.

We often mention it still, years later – I reminded my dad about it only this week. He always says, “Oh yes, that was very strange.” But that’s as far as we take it. The conversation stops dead. What else can we say about it?

It’s like a family secret, rather than a dinner party story. Nobody wants to feel judged. I’d always feared being seen as some oddball conspiracy theorist – which I’m not. I just had a weird experience with my parents. At least I was not alone in witnessing it, or I might have thought I was going quite mad.

Critics will say that it wasn’t a UFO. But I’m not trying to convince anybody of their existence – I’m just stating what happened to me. There was no record of a UFO sighting that day as far as I know – but apparently, that’s not unusual.

According to David Grusch, a whistleblower ex-intelligence official, who is one of the witnesses who appeared before the House committee hearing this week, 95 per cent of UFO sightings go unreported, with people citing fear of repercussions.

Grusch was asked if people had been “murdered” as part of a conspiracy to keep UFOs a secret. He told lawmakers that “non-human” biologics had been recovered by the government, but he had never seen an alien body. The Pentagon has denied Grusch’s claims of a cover-up.

It might sound like a Steven Spielberg movie but it’s coming out of the woodwork – that’s for sure.

The US Navy veteran fighter pilot Commander David Fravor, also testifying at the hearing, witnessed the infamous 2004 encounter with a “Tic Tac-shaped object” that moved erratically like a “ping pong ball” close to the ocean surface and travelled more than 60 miles in less than a minute.

He described it as “perfectly white, smooth and had no windows”. Maybe it’s similar to the one that narrowly missed me and my parents.

It’s fascinating, but it doesn’t surprise me that there might be other life in the vast galaxy – or scare me in the slightest. I’m far more worried about the climate crisis.

Even if extraterrestrial life really exists, who is to say they won’t help save our planet from destruction rather than be a threat to US national security – as is feared?

Two years ago, from my west London garden, I saw a string of eight, small-looking bright orange globes flying in a synchronIsed fashion across the sky – as did my neighbour and her son, who videoed it. In this case, I thought it could be Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites – but who knows? Lola, my daughter, saw them too. My neighbour was going to try to sell his video to The Sun – there is a hotline for things like that.

But what I think this really shows is that seeing UFOs is such a common experience that it makes me wonder if we are all in denial. Extraterrestrial life has never been (officially) discovered, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.