Incident · 2 May 2008 · 8 nm north-west of Birmingham Airport, West Midlands, at 1,500 feet
Police helicopter near-collision with unidentified lights over Birmingham (Airprox 055/08)
Also known as Birmingham police helicopter UFO, Airprox 055/08, West Midlands police helicopter UFO
On the night of 2 May 2008 a West Midlands police helicopter on surveillance over the north-west of Birmingham was circled at close range by two blue-green lights; the pilot manoeuvred to avoid a collision and the lights followed. The pilot thought someone might have flown a lit radio-controlled model at them deliberately.
The UK Airprox Board, which investigates near-misses, traced every likely source and found none, accepted the experienced crew's account in full and recorded the cause as an apparent conflict with an unidentified aircraft. A copy of its report reached the MoD's UFO desk after the press reported the case in November 2008.
Source: UK Airprox Board report 055/08, in MoD file DEFE 24/2450 (pp. 41–45), The National Archives (opened June 2013)
Facts and claims
- documented The UK Airprox Board's report records that at 21:50 on 2 May 2008 the pilot of a police EC135 on a night surveillance task at about 1,500 feet reported that “the front observer saw unidentified lights flying around their ac” about 100 metres away; he manoeuvred to avoid a collision, and the lights continued to circle at the same height, flew off and returned. Source: defe-24-2450-1.pdf
- documented All three crew members saw two continuous blue-green lights, and the front-seat observer saw an object behind them; Birmingham Radar saw no other contacts, and a thermal-camera search of the ground below found no sign of model-aircraft activity. Source: defe-24-2450-1.pdf
- documented The Board's secretariat ruled out model aircraft (in the British Model Flying Association's view), civil, police and military drones, military flights, gliders, kites, balloons, light aircraft, a laser show, fireworks and flares, and concluded: “Regrettably therefore, despite extensive tracing the source of the lights could not be identified.” Source: defe-24-2450-1.pdf
- documented The Board accepted the crew's unanimous sighting “totally as being accurate”, could offer no explanation, and gave as the cause “An apparent conflict with an unidentified ac displaying non-standard lights”, judging the object small and probably non-metallic as it showed on no radar. Source: defe-24-2450-1.pdf
Connected files
Documents
- Ministry of Defence UFO files: release of 21 June 2013 (25 files) (subject of) — DEFE 24/2450, pp. 41–45: the Airprox report
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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