An amateur photographer believes he captured a UFO tracking an RAF Hercules as it approached RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire.
The mystery silver shape was spotted tracking the military craft as it came to land at RAF Lyneham Photo: SWNS.COM
The retired school teacher was gardening at his home in nearby Westbury when he noticed the sun glinting off the circular surface.
"I don't believe in things from outer space but that thing was definitely tracking the plane," he said.
"My neighbour was in the garden at the time and I wanted to shout to them, but I didn't want to say 'there's a flying saucer in the sky' so I didn't say anything in the end."
Mr Powell, who taught computer sciences in Belfast for 30 years, added: "I thought at the time this is too good to miss but I didn't think the picture would come out as good as this.
"If I were to say it was a shot in a million I don't think I'd be exaggerating. I'm desperately curious to find out what it is.
"Since I've taken the photo I've been on some UFO websites and there's nothing remotely like this with an RAF plane being tracked."
The incident happened as John was gardening at 3.45pm on July 22.
RAF Lyneham is the military base where the bodies of fallen British soldiers are flown back into the UK on Hercules planes but there were no repatriations that day.
Ministry of Defence bosses said they would not be investigating because they so not consider it a "potential threat".
A spokesman said: "The MoD examines reports solely to establish whether UK airspace may have been compromised by hostile or unauthorised military activity.
"Unless there is evidence of a potential threat, there is no attempt to identify the nature of each sighting reported."