Bowyer described the first object as a long, brilliant, cigar-shaped light which, as he got closer, became a sharp-edged yellow-gold shape with dark bands. It appeared to be hanging motionless. A second one appeared, the same shape, further away. He watched them for around nine minutes, reported them to Jersey, and filed a report with the Civil Aviation Authority saying he had seen two bright, stationary objects. The MoD's own note of it reads, in full: "First object was bright orange/yellow. There was a gap in light or darker area. Second object was identical."
The other witnesses matter. Two of Bowyer's passengers saw coloured lights at the same time. Minutes after Bowyer's call, Jersey air traffic control told him a second captain, flying a different airline's aircraft in a different position, had just reported something very similar. That independent report is what made the case well known.
The explanations are not settled. A local astronomer, Michael Maunder, said the weather was "just right for setting up sundogs and similar phenomena", which appear about 22 degrees from the sun, matching the objects' reported positions. Bowyer himself, interviewed by the BBC, accepted earthquake lights as a possibility, linked to the Kent earthquake five days later. The folklorist and UFO researcher David Clarke thought a natural atmospheric effect the most plausible cause. Nothing was ever confirmed on radar. The map point uses the approximate position given for the sighting, over the sea west of Alderney.
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