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British cases and the Ministry of Defence UFO files. 79 events, newest first.
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Military2 Feb 2026
The UK Ministry of Defence said drone incidents near defence sites doubled to 266 in 2025 and that the Armed Forces Bill would let authorised personnel counter drones there without police help. The plan was first reported in October 2025.
Photo: Tagishsimon, CC BY-SA 3.0
Military21 Nov 2025
The Dutch Ministry of Defence said unidentified drones were seen over Volkel Air Base between 7 and 9 p.m. and personnel fired at them with ground-based weapons. The drones left and no wreckage was found. Drone sightings halted flights at Eindhoven the next evening.
Photo: Ministerie van Defensie, CC0
Government27 Nov 2024
UK defence minister Vernon Coaker told Parliament the Ministry of Defence takes safety seriously and keeps robust measures, including counter-drone capabilities, at its sites, as police investigated drones over RAF bases used by U.S. forces.
Photo: Chris McAndrew, CC BY 3.0
Military26 Nov 2024
U.S. Air Forces in Europe said small drones of varying size and number had been seen near and over RAF Lakenheath, Mildenhall and Feltwell since Nov. 20, and its update added RAF Fairford in southwest England. It said none affected base residents, facilities or assets.
Photo: Chris, CC BY-SA 2.0
Government13 Feb 2023
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Feb. 13, 2023 that the UK and its allies would review what the North American airspace intrusions meant for British security. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the country had capabilities such as quick-reaction Typhoon jets to keep it safe.
Photo: Richard Townshend, CC BY 3.0
Sightings28 Feb 2021
A fireball seen across the UK at about 9:54 pm was recorded by fireball networks and residents' dashboard and doorbell cameras. The tracked path led to fragments on a Winchcombe driveway, the first carbonaceous chondrite found in the UK and the first UK meteorite fall recovered in 30 years.
Photo: Matt Brown, CC BY 2.0
SightingsJun 2020
Paul Gait and Elaine Kirk, held for about 36 hours in December 2018 during the Gatwick drone hunt and never charged, sued Sussex Police for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment and were paid 200,000 pounds in compensation and legal costs.
Photo: Andy Mabbett, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings27 Sep 2019
Sussex Police ended their inquiry into the December 2018 Gatwick shutdown, saying 109 of 129 drone sightings came from credible witnesses and at least two drones flew. With no realistic lines of enquiry left, no culprit was ever identified.
Photo: Mike McBey, CC BY 2.0
Sightings8 Jan 2019
Heathrow stopped departures for about an hour after the Metropolitan Police received a report of a drone near the airport around 17:05 GMT. It came three weeks after drone sightings shut Gatwick; no drone operator was publicly identified.
Photo: Adrian Pingstone, Public domain
Sightings19 Dec 2018
Reported drone sightings over the runway closed London Gatwick from the night of Dec. 19, 2018 into Dec. 21, disrupting tens of thousands of passengers. Sussex Police called it a deliberate act, and the Defence Secretary confirmed the Army was brought in to support police.
Photo: Chris Sampson, CC BY 2.0
Sightings9 Nov 2018
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic crews told Shannon air traffic control they saw very bright, fast-moving lights off Ireland's southwest coast. Controllers saw nothing on radar. The Irish Aviation Authority opened a confidential occurrence review; one pilot suggested a meteor.
Photo: Rex and Fido, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sightings2 Jul 2017
Gatwick Airport said a reported drone near the airfield led it to suspend runway operations twice in one evening, briefly each time, causing go-arounds and diversions of several easyJet and British Airways flights. Police investigated. It preceded the far larger December 2018 shutdown.
Photo: Robin Webster, CC BY-SA 2.0
GovernmentOct 2016
Spain's Ministry of Defence published 80 Air Force UFO case files, about 1,900 pages covering 1962 to 1995, in its online Biblioteca Virtual de Defensa. The files had been declassified from 1991 and earlier could only be read in person at the Air Force library in Madrid.
Photo: Bartomeu Caldentey Vives, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings17 Apr 2016
The pilot of a British Airways A320 arriving from Geneva reported that an object, believed to be a drone, struck the front of the aircraft on approach to Heathrow. The plane landed safely and Metropolitan Police aviation officers opened an investigation.
Photo: Jeremy Segrott from Cardiff, Wales, UK, CC BY 2.0
Military2015
Former airman John Burroughs, a witness to the 1980 Rendlesham Forest incident, said through his attorney that the VA granted him full medical disability for injuries he links to that night. The VA's reasoning was not published; the UFO link is his and his lawyer's view.
Photo: Simon Leatherdale, CC BY-SA 2.0
MilitaryOct 2014
A small object launched with Russian military satellites in May 2014, first catalogued by U.S. trackers as debris, was later seen changing orbit. A British analyst identified it as Kosmos 2499 and speculated it might be an inspector satellite; the report carried no Russian explanation.
Sightings22 Jul 2014
An A320 crew on short final to Heathrow reported a small black object pass about 20 feet over the wing at 700 feet. The UK Airprox Board judged it a suspected radio-controlled model helicopter and rated the risk Category A, its highest; the operator was never traced.
Photo: Thomas Nugent, CC BY-SA 2.0
Whistleblowers2014
Former USAF security policemen Jim Penniston and John Burroughs, central witnesses to the December 1980 Rendlesham Forest events, published Encounter in Rendlesham Forest with former UK MoD official Nick Pope. It sets out their first-person accounts plus memos and interview transcripts.
Photo: Simon Leatherdale, CC BY-SA 2.0
Government21 Jun 2013
The National Archives released the final 25 MoD UFO files, about 4,400 pages covering late 2007 to the desk's closure in November 2009. They include a 2009 briefing saying no reported sighting had shown an extraterrestrial presence or military threat.
Photo: Christopher Hilton, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings2 Dec 2012
An Airbus A320 crew on final approach to Glasgow reported an object passing about 300 feet below them and rated the collision risk high. The UK Airprox Board could not identify it, judging aircraft or a balloon unlikely.
Government12 Jul 2012
The UK National Archives released the ninth batch of Ministry of Defence UFO files. Papers showed defence intelligence staff weighing possible explanations in the 1990s, and a 2008 note from the UFO desk officer saying the MoD knew of no evidence of alien visits.
Photo: Eirian Evans, CC BY-SA 2.0
MediaMay 2011
Joe Cornish's debut feature Attack the Block, in which a teenage street gang defends a South London tower block from invading aliens on Guy Fawkes Night, was released in British cinemas by Optimum. Screen Gems later picked it up for U.S. release.
Photo: Raffi Asdourian from New York, United States, CC BY 2.0
Media18 Mar 2011
Universal released Paul in the U.S., a comedy by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost about two British sci-fi fans who tour U.S. UFO sites after Comic-Con and pick up an alien who escaped from Area 51.
Photo: Paul Hudson, CC BY 2.0
Government3 Mar 2011
A National Archives release of MoD UFO files showed that Defence Intelligence UFO files for 1980-82, which would have covered the Rendlesham Forest case, had been found destroyed in a 2000 search. Archives consultant David Clarke said the main Rendlesham file was already public.
Photo: N Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0
Government5 Aug 2010
A National Archives release of MoD UFO files included a second-hand account that Winston Churchill ordered a wartime encounter between RAF bombers and a UFO kept secret to avoid mass panic. The claim came via a relative of one of Churchill's bodyguards and is unconfirmed.
Photo: Sgt. J. Mapham, No. 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Public domain
