The pilot spoke in a matter-of-fact, folksy tone as if alerting holidaymakers to a noteworthy landmark out of the window.
'Chaos 1 just pulling up on the left wing now,' he said.
It was the early hours of yesterday morning and our RAF Voyager tanker and transport plane was 25,000ft over Poland, not far from the Russian border, the same 'danger zone' which saw Kremlin drones on a reckless incursion shot down last week.
Peering out of the window we saw strange flashing lights and a formless shape just beyond the Voyager's 200ft wing that briefly suggested, to my mind, a close encounter.
But then its dark outline loomed into view revealing a Top Gun pilot silhouetted in a RAF Typhoon fighter jet.
