Yes, this can't be dismissed. (It's also plausible the military could be intentionally deceiving some of its own personnel, for some purpose. So a military pilot recounting a story may not necessarily be lying.)

Obviously such a claim would need evidence and a plausible motive and shouldn't be suspected without evidence; but, also obviously, it's one of many hypotheses that would have a much higher probability of being true than extraterrestrially-originated visitation.