Disclosed

Lakenheath-Bentwaters radar-visual case

Date
13 Aug 1956
Place
RAF Bentwaters and RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom
Record
Curated case
Assessment
Contested
Evidence strength
467 case pages by decade; this one falls in 1950s with 49 othersAll cases

What was reported

On the night of 13-14 August 1956, USAF radar at Bentwaters tracked targets at apparent speeds of 2,000 to 4,000 mph, one coinciding with a fast white light seen from the ground and from a C-47 overhead; Lakenheath ground observers then saw luminous objects that changed course, and its radar tracked objects that stopped and started abruptly. An RAF Venom night fighter reported a radar lock and said the target got behind it. The record is the Blue Book teletype plus a watch supervisor's letter written twelve years later; the Condon Report's analyst concluded that 'the probability that at least one genuine UFO was involved appears to be fairly high'. Skeptics attribute it to anomalous propagation, Perseid meteors and misread radar; the original radar data do not survive for re-analysis.

What officials concluded

Unresolved

Condon Report (1969): unexplained, with a 'fairly high' probability of a genuine UFO

Strongest ordinary reading

None established; anomalous radar propagation, meteors and operator error proposed

Evidence profile

Sensors2 of 9
  • Yes: Visual
  • No: Infrared
  • Yes: Radar
  • No: Video
  • No: Photo
  • No: Film
  • No: Audio
  • No: Night vision
  • No: Other sensor
Witnessescount not stated
  • No: Civilian
  • Yes: Military aircrew
  • Yes: Military ground
  • No: Airline crew
  • Yes: Sensor operator
  • No: Law enforcement
  • No: Scientist
  • No: Astronaut
  • No: Intelligence official
  • No: Other
ShapeLight only
  • Yes: Light only
  • No: Orb or sphere
  • No: Disc
  • No: Triangle
  • No: Cylinder
  • No: Cube
  • No: Other shape
Effectsnone reported
  • No: Physiological
  • No: Physical trace
  • No: Electromagnetic
  • No: Sound
  • No: Silent

Pentagon files

1
  • Document255_413270_UFO's_and_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_ForRelease 1

    UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare For? (the COMETA report), with April 2001 Carol Rosin cover letter and handwritten notes

    This is not a NASA-authored document: it is a 2001 cover letter and handwritten notes from Carol Rosin (self-described former spokesperson for Wernher von Braun) forwarding the 1999 French COMETA report 'UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare For?' to a NASA official, apparently seeking a meeting. COMETA was an independent association of former auditors of the French defense-studies institute IHEDN, not a French government body. The report reviews French pilot testimonies, five foreign radar/visual aeronautical cases (Lakenheath-Bentwaters, RB-47, Tehran 1976, a Russian missile-base case, Belgium), several French ground cases investigated by GEPAN/SEPRA (Trans-en-Provence, the 'Amaranth' case, a 1979 close encounter with reported humanoid figures), and recommends French and EU government action, stating the extraterrestrial hypothesis 'cannot be ruled out.'

    Open the original on war.gov

Videos that discuss it

1

Outside sources

On the map

52.41° N, 0.56° E, plotted at the centre of the region named in the record

Show on the map