Former director of the CIA James Woolsey says he was skeptical about aliens until a friend’s aircraft was ‘paused at 40,000ft’ and he ‘hopes we can be friendly to other creatures if they exist’

A former CIA director has spoken of his new ‘openness’ to the possibility of alien life, telling a story of an airplane that was brought to a halt at 40,000 feet, and saying he hope that mankind was ‘friendly’ to extraterrestrials, if they ever made contact.