Police helicopter 'near miss' during drone alert

A police helicopter was forced to abandon a mission when the pilot reported coming dangerously close to a drone.

The chopper had been sent to assist at RAF Lakenheath, in Suffolk, following reports of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the vicinity.

Flight data indicated the aircraft climbed steeply and made a series of sharp turns while over the nearby town of Newmarket in November.

The National Police Air Service (NPAS), which operates the Airbus H135, would not comment as the incident was still under investigation. However, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to police revealed the helicopter withdrew "due to a drone coming close to them".

NPAS confirmed that the helicopter, understood to have the registration G-POLJ, had been sent to the area on 22 November following reports of drone sightings.

The US Air Force said a number of unmanned aerial systems had been spotted in the vicinity of RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, RAF Feltwell in Norfolk and RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.

NPAS has video footage of the incident but would not release it on national security grounds, following a series of FOI requests.

What is known as an Airprox notification was sent following the incident.

These are submitted when a pilot or air traffic personnel identify a near miss in which the safety of the aircraft involved may have been compromised.

The near miss incident was detailed in an FOI request to Norfolk and Suffolk Police, made by Stuart Onyeche.

This disclosed a log entry which stated: "NPAS is withdrawing due to a drone coming close to them."

The logs contained 35 notifications related to drone sightings reported to local police between 22 and 27 November.

They contained reports, mostly from members of the public, which described drones making three loops of an undisclosed perimeter and another doing loops around Feltwell.

Sightings were also reported at Bodney Camp, another military installation, and were seen moving in the direction of Sandringham and a nearby Center Parcs.

One log entry also described a man who "grabbed the drone, got back in the car and roared off at speed", although the date when this happened was unclear.

The final entry stated: "Informant said that he has spoken to ex-USAF service men, and he now believes that a UFO/spaceship was captured by the US military during the early 80s."

Mr Onyeche, who said his work was aviation related, told the BBC the incident "raises obvious safety concerns for the public on the ground from the risk of collision above".

He added: "The public are being kept in the dark about what happened, so we are being left to join dots and speculate."

Suffolk Police referred the BBC's inquiries to the Ministry of Defence.

Ian Hudson, a drone commentator and analyst, extracted data from the flight tracking website ADS-B Exchange.

He said it showed G-POLJ taking off from North Weald Airfield, in Essex, at 21:13 GMT on 22 November. It arrived at RAF Lakenheath 23 minutes later before turning southwest towards Newmarket.

The chopper then climbed steeply before making a series of turns.

The BBC was able to reproduce his findings.

The flight path "appears to be a search or pursuit over Newmarket", and there were reservations within the drone community about the presence of drones in the skies above the airbases, Mr Hudson said.

"There is scepticism about drone sightings at night as often there are mis-identifications," he added.

Investigations into the sightings were led by the Ministry of Defence Police.

An MOD spokesperson said: "We take threats seriously and maintain robust measures at defence sites."

In February, the i-Paper published an analysis of open source data which indicated three people, linked to Russian military intelligence, had been in the area during and leading up to the sightings.

The BBC has not been able to verify these reports.

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