Incident of Lakenheath

The incident of Lakenheath proceeded in the night from August 13rd to 14th 1956, when UFO flew over military bases of Lakenheath and Bentwaters (communes with the US Air Force and the Royal Air Force), close to Cambridge in England.

Chronology of the events

August 13rd, 1956 with 22:55, the radar of the base of Bentwaters detects an object not identified moving of is in west while passing above the base, always almost vis-a-vis the wind at the apparent speed of 2000 to 4000 miles per hour (mph), that is to say 3.200 to 6.400 km/h. No sonic boom is mentioned. The personnel of the tower of control of Bentwaters then says to have seen one brilliant light flying over the ground of is in west “at a formidable speed”, with approximately 1.200 m height. At the same moment, the pilot of a transport aircraft soldier, flying over Bentwaters to 1.200 m of altitude, declares that a brilliant light passed under its plane while sinking of is in west “at a formidable speed”. Both visual observations consolidate detection radar.

The operator radar of Bentwaters, Freddie Wimbledon, announces these concordant observations to the shift leader of the control center radar of traffic of Lakenheath, an American warrant officer having written a report enough detailed of these observations and those which follow. The report, addressed in 1968 to Condon commission by the soldier then in retirement is coherent and does not contradict, except in some minor points, the documents of the file Blue Book of USAF. The shift leader of the base of Lakenheath alerts his operators radar. One of them detects a stationary object to approximately 40 km in the south-west of the base, almost in the axis of the trajectory of the supersonic object seen with 22:55. The shift leader calls the radar of approach of Lakenheath, which confirms the observation. The radar operators of the control center of the air traffic see the object suddenly passing immediately from immobility at a speed ranging between 600 and 950 km/h. The shift leader prevents the command of the base. The object changes several times of direction, describing segments of right-hand side, varying from 13 to 30 km, separated by abrupt stops from 3 to 6 minutes and its speed always passing without transition from a zero value to a value of some 950 km/h. Visual observations are made ground and confirm important speed and amazing accelerations. The regulatory telex sent by Lakenheath concludes: “The fact that fast accelerations and abrupt stops of the object were detected by radar and the sight starting from the ground gives to the report/ratio one unquestionable credibility. It is not believed that these observations can have one unspecified weather or astronomical origin. ”

At the end of 30 to 45 minutes, the RAF sends a hunter of night, two-seater Venom, with the continuation of the object. The control center radar of the air traffic of Lakenheath the guide in direction of the object, to 10 km in the east of the center. The pilot visually acquires the target and with the radar, then loses it. The center then directs it to 16 km to the east of Lakenheath; the pilot acquires a target again and says “My machine-guns are directed on him”. Little time afterwards, it loses its target once again. Nevertheless this one was followed by the operators radar of the center who inform the pilot that the object made a fast movement to place behind him, and follows it to short distance. The pilot confirms. Observed by the radar operators, the pilot tries during approximately 10 minutes all the operations to place itself again behind the object (gone up out of candle, piqués, turns continuous), but it does not reach that point: the UFO Follows it, remote constant according to the radars on the ground. Lastly, to fuel court, it turns over to its base, asking that it be said to him if the object persists in following it. The UFO follows it, indeed, on a short distance, then is immobilized. The radar operators will see then the object carrying out some short displacements, then to leave in direction north to some 950 km/h and to disappear with 3:30 out of the range of the radars. Venom sent in replacement first had to return quickly at its base in consequence of engine trouble, front to have been able to establish a contact with the object.

Conclusion

The unknown air objects followed by radar in the night from August 13rd to 14th 1956, were judged " not identifiés" by the report published in 1969 by the Condon commission charged to evaluate work on the UFO of the American air force (c£ chapter 9). The Astronautics magazine and Aeronautics published in September 1971 a study of the case by Thayer, the expert radar of the Condon commission, which was based partly on the study presented in 1969 by professor Mac Donald, physicist of the atmosphere. He concluded that “if one consider the high credibility of information and the coherence and the continuity of reports, like their " high degree; of strangeness " , this case of UFO is certainly one of most disconcerting known to date”

Notice skeptic

The ufosceptic Philip J. Klass, writer of the review Aviation Week and Space Technology and member of the cell phenomenon UFO of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry with proposed several possible explanations of this case:

the radar of the RATC (for Radar Air Control Center Traffic) could not function correctly.

Under certain known atmospheric English conditions under the term Anomalous Propagation (anomalies of propagation), of the radars can detect clouds. The operators radars interviewed by Klass with Bentwaters/Lakenheath indicated that the anomalies of propagations were current. The fact that other radars, those of Sculthorpe and London airport, did not detect objects, goes in the direction of the assumption that there were nothing in the sky put-with-share some meteors. Indeed, there were small meteors in the sky this evening there, which was confirmed by other witnesses this night there (this period of the summer is that of the shooting star fall in the area of the Perseid). These meteors can at the same time explain some of detections radars and certain lights seen by witnesses. Various work showed that the witnesses cannot describe in an exact way displacement of meteors. A witness can have the subjective impression that the object stops, or testify thereafter that it went in another direction that in which it really went. It is what the skeptics gather under the complex concept of Méprise, i.e. a mistake in which the perception of the stimulus moves away more or less appreciably from the characteristics of the stimulus source.

the MOD unfortunately seems to have destroyed its files relating to this case.
For a skeptic explanation supplements of this case, to see HTTP: /gonzo.skeptic.googlepages.com/bentlake (in English). With final, nothing in this case proves that it is about an extraterrestrial spaceship visiting our planet. Rational explanations (which must be privileged according to the Rasoir of Occam) can give an account of it very well.

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