UFOs at Lakenheath? What Really Happened That Night Over Suffolk
When a police helicopter mistook a military jet for a rogue drone, it sparked national headlines and a deeper look at how close we came to disaster.
On a cold November night in 2024, a police helicopter crew took to the skies over Newmarket with a clear mission: help local officers track suspected drone activity. What unfolded next would not only grab public attention, it would trigger a formal aviation safety investigation, a flurry of speculation, and the uncomfortable realisation that UK airspace coordination isn’t always as seamless as we think.
Now, eight months later, the UK Airprox Board has released its full findings. And the truth, as is so often the case in emergency aviation, is more complicated (and more human) than the headlines suggested.
A routine drone search that spiralled
At 9:51 pm on 22 November 2024, an EC135 helicopter operated by the National Police Air Service (NPAS) was on task over Suffolk airspace, responding to reports of drones flying near RAF Lakenheath. That tasking came directly from the local police force, who believed illegal drone activity might be disrupting the area.
In a statement issued this week, Chief Superintendent Vicki White, Accountable Manager at NPAS, said:
“We acknowledge the findings of the UK Airprox Board and the report published in relation to the incident on 22 November 2024.
On that evening, our crew was tasked by the local police force to assist in the search for suspected drone activity in the Newmarket area.”
What the NPAS crew didn’t know, what no one knew, in fact, was that the “drones” they were tracking weren’t drones at all. They were F15 fighter jets, flown by a U.S. military unit out of RAF Lakenheath.
And that misidentification would lead to a mid-air encounter that the police pilot would later describe as a “significant descent at 145 knots” in order to avoid what they still believed were unmarked, potentially hostile drones.
This diagram (AirProx) shows the flight paths of the police helicopter (EC135) and the F15 fighter jet in the moments leading up to their closest approach. Despite the police crew mistaking the F15 for a drone, radar data later confirmed the jet maintained 1700ft of vertical separation at the closest point—just 0.2 nautical miles apart.
“We thought we were being shepherded”
The Airprox report lays bare just how disorienting the situation became for the police crew. After being cleared into the air traffic zone, the EC135 crew began visually tracking what they believed were large drones orbiting Lakenheath airfield—red flashing lights, no TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) return, and no standard aircraft lighting visible to their onboard systems.
As one of the unknown objects converged toward them, flying above and ahead, they descended sharply and banked away. At one point, the pilot reportedly told Lakenheath controllers that they believed they were being “shepherded” away from the area.
Only later, after analysing radar data, radio calls and flight paths, did investigators determine that the “drone” was a U.S. Air Force F15 fighter jet operating under visual flight rules and in communication with the Lakenheath approach controller on a separate UHF frequency.
The police aircraft was at 5,500 feet. The fighter? 1,700 feet above and just 0.2 nautical miles away. Close enough to spook an experienced pilot, especially at night, with limited visual cues and no Night Vision Device in use.
Radar snapshot from the moment of closest approach
Captured at 21:50:46, this radar image shows the EC135 police helicopter and the F15 fighter jet at their closest recorded point, just 0.2 nautical miles apart horizontally, with a vertical separation of 1700 feet. The helicopter crew, unaware of the fighter’s presence, believed they were being followed by a drone.
No formal risk—but big questions remain
Despite public concern and dramatic reporting at the time, the Airprox Board concluded that there was no risk of collision. The fighter pilot maintained a significant height buffer and had visual contact with the EC135. But the breakdown in mutual awareness was stark.
The fighter pilot knew the helicopter was in the area thanks to a “point-out” from controllers. The helicopter crew, on the other hand, received no traffic information about the F15s, even as they made multiple radio calls describing the unknown flying objects around them. Under a Basic Service, ATC wasn’t required to provide that information, but the Board acknowledged that doing so could have significantly improved the EC135 pilot’s situational awareness.
In their summary, investigators cited three main failings:
Controllers didn’t pass traffic info about the F15s to the EC135 crew.
The police pilot had no awareness of the fighter jets nearby.
The F15 was misidentified as a drone due to visual misperception and lack of sensor confirmation.
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Public safety mission meets military airspace
Perhaps the most damning detail in the report? There was no pre-coordination between NPAS and RAF Lakenheath about the police operation. In short, the Americans didn’t know the British police would be flying in their training block that night. And the British police didn’t know the Americans were using the airspace.
It’s a sobering reminder of the complexity and fragmentation that still exists in UK airspace, especially when multiple agencies operate under different protocols and frequencies.
No blame, but a clear learning point
To their credit, neither NPAS nor the RAF blamed the other. Both operated within their procedures, and both believed they were doing the right thing based on the information available at the time.
But the incident underlines a need for far stronger coordination when policing operations require flight into active military training zones. Whether it’s drones, search-and-rescue, or suspect pursuit, police helicopters don’t operate in a vacuum. They’re part of the national safety picture, and their situational awareness needs to match the complexity of the skies they’re flying through.
This wasn’t about UFOs. It was about the systems that keep us safe.
While the public fascination with UFOs might have sparked interest in this story, what actually unfolded was far more grounded and far more important.
It was about a police crew doing their job. It was about airspace management, misperception, and human limits in high-stress environments. And above all, it was about how fragile trust and clarity can be in shared airspace if agencies don’t talk to one another beforehand.
For the police crew, it was a confusing and potentially dangerous night. For aviation regulators, it was a close call worth learning from. And for the public? A rare glimpse into just how many moving parts are involved every time a helicopter lifts off to protect us.
You can read the full report HERE
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