Incident · 15 February 1999 · Scottish air traffic control, Prestwick, Ayrshire; the contact from the Turnberry VOR south-west towards Belfast
Prestwick tower: a primary radar contact ten miles wide crosses fifty miles in a minute
Also known as Prestwick radar UFO 1999, Prestwick SATCO report, Scottish ATC radar contact 1999, Prestwick 1999
At 10.25 am on 15 February 1999 the senior air traffic control officer at Prestwick, the Scottish and Oceanic control centre, watched a primary radar contact he put at ten miles wide and two miles long travel from the Turnberry beacon south-west towards Belfast, covering some fifty miles in about a minute, several times the speed of any aircraft. He reported it within the hour through the military air information service, and the MoD treated it, with a Derbyshire police report of the same week, as a credible-witness case.
The air defence staff checked their own activity and had the recordings of three radars examined, at Buchan, West Drayton and Prestwick itself. None showed traffic matching the report, and the case was closed as of no further air defence interest. The file does not say what the Prestwick display had shown or why the recordings differed from it.
Source: MoD file DEFE 24/2008, pp. 274–276, 298–301 (The National Archives, opened February 2010)
Facts and claims
- documented The report faxed to the MoD by the military air information service at West Drayton at 1030Z on 15 February 1999 is from the senior air traffic control officer at Prestwick, observing from the tower “ON RADAR”: at 1025Z, for one to two minutes, a “PRIMARY RADAR CONTACT 10 MILES WIDE, TRAVELLING V. QUICK, ABOUT 2 MILES LONG”, first seen at the Turnberry VOR heading south-west towards Belfast, moving “50 MILES IN ROUGHLY 1 MINUTE” (DEFE 24/2008, p. 299). Source: defe-24-2008.pdf
- documented On 1 March 1999 the UFO desk sent the air defence staff two “credible witness reports”, “one from a Police Officer and the second from an Air Traffic Controller who saw the object on radar”; the next day the air defence ground environment desk asked HQ 11/18 Group to scrutinise the Prestwick report thoroughly, as it “is unusual and may be the subject of subsequent publicity”, and to have Prestwick keep any radar recording (pp. 298, 301). Source: defe-24-2008.pdf
- documented The Group's reply of 23 March 1999 found no air defence activity between 1015 and 1045: “there was no QRA(I) activity, no routine UK AD flying and no exercises in progress”, and RAF Neatishead and RAF Buchan had nothing airborne. Recorded radar data from RAF Buchan, the London centre at West Drayton and the Scottish centre at Prestwick were examined for the time and area: in each case “No traffic matching the report was seen”, the video tapes were sent to the Group and the radar tapes impounded (p. 275). Source: defe-24-2008.pdf
- documented Its conclusion: “There was no AD activity at the time of the report. No exercises involving RAF AD units were in progress at the time. Recorded radar data replays do not support the sighting. Report of no further interest to HQAD.” The air defence desk authorised release of the radar recordings but asked the Group to keep the video tapes for a year (pp. 274, 276). Source: defe-24-2008.pdf
Connected files
Documents
- MoD file DEFE 24/2008: UFO reports, February 1999 – January 2000 (subject of) — Pages 274–276 and 298–301: the Prestwick SATCO's report of 15 February 1999 and HQ 11/18 Group's radar investigation
- Ministry of Defence UFO files: release of 18 February 2010 (24 files) (subject of) — DEFE 24/2008, pp. 274–276 and 298–301
Organizations
- Ministry of Defence (UK) (assessed by) — Sent by Sec(AS) to the air defence staff as a credible-witness report; HQ 11/18 Group found no air defence activity and no matching traffic on three radars' recordings
Mentioned in this file
- National Archives and Records Administration (Organization)
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