You already know about the famous November 17, 1986 UFO encounter involving a Japanese Air Lines cargo flight (if you don't, you can certainly read the particulars via the Web), but months surrounding the incident -- or incidents, since at least one other UFO report was claimed by the JAL pilot and crew) -- held their own UFO surprises, not as well-publicized as the JAL news.
By June of 1987, according to the Associated Press, Poland's official Army newspaper was announcing that "several" military pilots had spotted strange objects flying silently over the country at high speeds. The Army daily, Zolnlerz Wolnosci, quoted the pilot of a Soviet-made single-engine AN-2, a passenger plane: "I saw a plane passing about 60 yards below me with a plume of bright fire trailing it. I was surprised because I should have heard the roar of a jet engine while the plane passed by me without a sound."
While the newspaper did not offer a specific date, it did confirm that similar reports had been received from other pilots.
Referencing another incident, the article quoted a military pilot: "That night we were to practice interception. All of a sudden someone cried out to look up.
"Right above us an object was sailing eastwards at an altitude of some 600 yards. . .It was literally sailing by, as no sound could be heard. Physically, it seemed impossible."
Listing yet a third incident, the newspaper mentioned two pilots who received orders to intercept an object back in 1983. One of them, a Lt. Marek J. (no last name given), stated: "After I got to a distance of 300 yards, I noticed its strange shape. It was something that did not resemble anything flying in the air. The object was an oblong cylinder."
