Pilots are trained observers. They know the difference between Venus and a landing light, between a weather balloon and a fast-moving contact. Which is why reports from aviators carry a weight that casual sightings do not.

From the 1947 Kenneth Arnold sighting that gave the world the term “flying saucer” to the US Navy’s officially released cockpit footage decades later, flight crews have consistently described objects performing manoeuvres beyond the capability of any known aircraft.

Australia has its own catalogue of aircrew reports, many lodged formally with the Department of Transport and quietly filed away. Some of those files, decades later, are only now being re-examined.