A WEST Devon housewife who complained to the RAF after part of a jet landed in her garden was told it was probably a neighbour's barbecue. Sue Collins, 55, said she could not believe her eyes when she saw the two and a half foot wide bright red cone just yards from her home at Lewdown. The unidentified flying object had partially demolished a trellis outside the farmhouse and come within inches of hitting a studio in the garden. Ms Collins said it looked like the air intake from a fighter or air trainer — but she got short shrift when she called the RAF base at St Mawgan. An operator told her it was probably a piece of a neighbour's barbecue which had been blown into her property by gale force winds. Ms Collins found the circular piece of debris when she took her Doberman dog Saskia out into the garden at first light. She took it home where she examined it and could see traces of oil and scorch marks but no identifying numbers. Ms Collins lives in the farmhouse with her 21-year-old son Sam, who was also baffled by the mystery object. She said:'It had knocked down a bit of trellis in the garden and must have fallen out of the sky during the night. 'It is just as well I was not out there at the time because it could have landed on my head and as it was it only just missed the studio. 'It was scary to think how close it came to the house but even scarier to think that there must be a plane flying around somewhere with a bit missing. 'I rang RAF St Mawgan to report it and they did not want to know. I described it and the bloke suggested it could be a bit of a neighbour's barbecue which had been blown over the fence. 'I may be blonde but I do know the difference between a barbecue and a piece of aircraft. I laughed at it and he rang off. 'They were incredibly high handed with me and did not seem to take it seriously at all. I think they should be more concerned if there is even a possibility of it coming from one of their planes.' Ms Collins said the metal was painted bright red and had spots of oil on it and had obviously been exposed to heat. She said: 'It is most likely to be military because we get a lot of RAF flights coming over here and not a lot of civil aircraft. 'I have reported it to the Civil Aviation Authority who are going to have a look at it.' A Civil Aviation Authority spokesman said: 'We have received a call about this and taken the details. We do not know at this stage if it has come from an aircraft. 'If it has come from an airliner it would not necessarily be reported to us by the airline. 'A plane could land in a foreign country thousands of miles away before it is noticed and the crew would have no idea at what point in the journey it was lost. 'If it is from a military aircraft it will be up to them to investigate.' An RAF spokesman said:'We will look into this but it seems unlikely to have come from one of our aircraft because the only ones we have which are painted red are the Red Arrows. 'Our complaints flying investigation team will be getting in touch with her but we have no reports of any damaged aircraft over the past 48 hours.'