Incident · 17 November 2003 · Bromley, Kent (south-east London)
Flashing lights over Bromley confirmed by police and a police helicopter crew
Also known as Bromley UFO 2003, Bromley lights
In the early hours of 17 November 2003 a family in Bromley filmed a group of twenty to thirty red flashing lights moving across the sky with a whirring sound and called the police. The officer who attended, and a police helicopter crew in the air at the time, also saw the lights; the officer judged them faster than any aircraft, the helicopter crew suggested aircraft on the approach to Heathrow, which military controllers ruled out.
Because police officers had seen it, the MoD's UFO desk asked air defence staff to check the radar; RAF Neatishead found nothing but routine traffic, and the case was closed as of no defence interest. The witnesses are not named in the files.
Source: MoD file DEFE 24/2036 (pp. 176–179), The National Archives (opened March 2011)
Facts and claims
- documented A follow-up report to RAF Strike Command records that at 2.25 am on 17 November 2003 two adults and a child in Bromley “saw 20-30 red flashing lights in the sky accompanied by a whirring noise” and recorded them on video, and that the police officer sent to the scene “confirmed the sighting” and, using a lamppost as a marker, “concluded the lights were zigzagging / turning across the sky at a speeds faster than any man-made aircraft”. Source: defe-24-2036-1-1.pdf
- documented The report adds that a police helicopter crew airborne at the time also confirmed the lights but thought they might be aircraft approaching Heathrow, while military air traffic control at Swanwick “declared that there were no aircraft in the approach pattern at that time”. Source: defe-24-2036-1-1.pdf
- documented Handled under the MoD's “credible witness” policy, the report was checked against RAF Neatishead's radar tapes; the air defence staff replied that “other than routine air traffic in the area, nothing additional was detected in the area despite good radar coverage”, and that it was of no air defence interest. Source: defe-24-2036-1-1.pdf
Connected files
Documents
- Ministry of Defence UFO files: release of 3 March 2011 (35 files) (subject of) — DEFE 24/2036, pp. 176–179
Mentioned in this file
- Ministry of Defence (UK) (Organization)
- The National Archives: guides to the Ministry of Defence UFO files (2008–2013) (Document)
- National Archives and Records Administration (Organization)
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