Watch: British Police Helicopters Encounter UFOs, Film Them

Mar 23, 2020

Military footage of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) is widely known to have come from the US, Chile and Mexico. But what you may not know is British military helicopters encountered — and filmed — anomalous objects twice over the span of a decade. It occurred in the same general patch of sky above the waters of the unforgiving Bristol Channel. Buried in the UK Ministry of Defence’s declassified UFO files is a reference to the first of the sightings, in 2008.

The crew reported it as “flying saucer shaped,” and the police department backed up their account, calling them “very experienced” observers. Eight years later, in 2016, British NPAS disclosed a second encounter above the channel and declassified 8 minutes of footage. They said the spherical object only was visible on infrared, and doubted it could’ve been a balloon because it was flying into the wind approximately 1,000 feet above the water. Crew also doubted it was a drone, saying their helicopter couldn’t keep up with it.

Sources in order of mention

MOD UFO Desk copy of BBC story on 2008 encounter: https://archive.org/stream/UKUFODocs3/UK%20UFO%20Docs%201#page/n1639/mode/2up/search/Athan

Telegraph article on 2008 encounter: https://web.archive.org/web/20090122012503/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2160814/Police-chase-UFO-over-Cardiff.html

NPAS disclosure of 2016 encounter: https://twitter.com/NPASSouthWest/status/779325831101423617

Helicopter flight log: https://gea-kt1.weebly.com/flight-details.html

Image credits

Bristol Channel, Dr Blofeld (CC): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bristol_Channel_from_Porthkerry.jpg

Bristol Channel, J. Anderson (CC): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Llantwit_Major_Beach_Bristol_Channel.jpg

Avro Vulcan, RuthAS (CC): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Avro_Vulcan_VX770_VX777_FAR_13.09.53_edited-2.jpg

Harrier, J. Gunner (CC): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Am_I_the_only_one_who_thinks_they_still_look_pretty_damn_good%3F_(5120741913).jpg