Incident · December 1994 – December 1995 · RAF Lyneham, Wiltshire
Radar “blob” and guards' sighting at RAF Lyneham
Also known as RAF Lyneham UFO, Lyneham radar UFO
A night shortly before Christmas in the mid-1990s at RAF Lyneham, the RAF's Hercules base: the approach controller saw a large stationary return on his radar near the runway centreline, steered two C-130s around it, and watched it break up and scatter at great speed; soon afterwards two airmen on guard rang air traffic control to describe a bright light bursting apart in the same way.
The account comes from the controller's own statement, written years later and attached to Freedom of Information requests in 2008–09; his original report to the UFO desk has not been found among the released papers. The controller and the airmen are not named in the files.
Source: MoD file DEFE 24/2454 (pp. 155–160), The National Archives (opened June 2013)
Facts and claims
- claimed A former RAF flight lieutenant, then approach controller and shift supervisor at RAF Lyneham with almost 20 years on radar, wrote that while recovering two C-130s at night he saw “a large ‘blob’ on the radar screen about 3 miles from touchdown on the centreline”, which was stationary, so he steered the aircraft around it; from the tower he could see it on the distance-from-touchdown indicator but nothing out of the window. Source: defe-24-2454-1.pdf
- claimed He wrote: “Suddenly the ‘blob’ burst and fragmented shooting off in all directions at massive speed.” Later an airman on guard duty telephoned to report a bright light to the east that had burst, its fragments shooting off at speeds “which he could not believe”, and several minutes later a second airman gave a similar account. Source: defe-24-2454-1.pdf
- claimed He says he reported it to the MoD UFO desk by telephone and in writing, that it happened just before Christmas in 1994 or 1995, and that “I am one of the worlds biggest sceptics when it comes to UFO's, however I can offer no realistic explanation for what I saw”. Source: defe-24-2454-1.pdf
- documented Asked under the Freedom of Information Act in 2009 for the original report, the MoD replied that any report should be in files due for transfer to The National Archives, and withheld it until then. Source: defe-24-2454-1.pdf
Connected files
Documents
- Ministry of Defence UFO files: release of 21 June 2013 (25 files) (subject of) — DEFE 24/2454, pp. 155–160
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)
More incidents
- Cosford incident: police and RAF sightings across western England and Wales
- Soldiers' video of lights over Tern Hill barracks, Shropshire
- Lights over the Wash and radar plot over Boston, Lincolnshire
- Six “flying saucers” across southern England: the Farnborough students' hoax
- RAF Manston F-86D ordered to fire on a radar UFO over East Anglia
- Police helicopter near-collision with unidentified lights over Birmingham (Airprox 055/08)