A truly excellent job of nibbling away at facts has led I believe to the late release of an Airprox report between a Police helicopter and USAF F-15 over Cambridgeshire.
Well done Ian Hudson and Mike Morgan, your persistent FOIA work has meant the truth that had to be told finally was. If you click either of their names you can start ferreting around what they asked.
This is the incident that led to several areas of restricted airspace for drones over the UK at the request of USAF.
These restrictions were put in place by the CAA with zero evidence to support their necessity.
I have read the incident report several times now and find myself getting angrier and angrier that the CAA had the wool pulled over their eyes so comprehensively. The folks that made these decisions at the CAA need investigating. They have cost small drone businesses in the UK money and damaged the reputation of the industry.
ARPAS (the supposed UK body representing RPAS operators) will do nothing about this and continue to only serve the requirements of a handful of members.
We know there is video of the incident from the police helicopter that was being withheld for all sorts of reasons, even from the BBC. Time for the release and accurate reporting from the media that also fell for the official line. Time for the Police, CAA and DfT to start telling the truth about Gatwick as well.
Some key lines from the report.
THE EC135 PILOT reports that they had flown at 1500ft towards Lakenheath ATZ, contacted Lakenheath Radar on 128.900MHz (the EC135 is not UHF-equipped) and were given a clearance into the zone at 1500ft. They were not informed of any other traffic in the zone and they didn’t receive any traffic returns on their TCAS. They saw red flashing lights in the area of the Lakenheath ATZ (which, at the time, they believed were drones) at a height in excess of 1500ft. [The pilot of the EC135 reported initially that] the ‘drones’ appeared to be carrying out large orbits of Lakenheath airfield.
They vacated the zone, and had advised ATC of their intentions to vacate the zone, and then climbed to estimate the height of the ‘drones’.
After climbing to approximately 4000ft, they started heading east towards Bury St Edmunds, tracking a
‘drone’ which was to the north of them at a slightly greater altitude. Several transmissions were made
to ATC to explain what they were doing as well as what the ‘drones’ were doing. Once they started
heading in a westerly direction (now
It was evident from reviewing the radar recordings that the police helicopter pilot was likely reporting,
and reacting to, activity of the F15s that were operating in the area. It appears that, at the time, the
ATC staff and the pilots involved had not recognised this as a possibility. The recording shows no
primary tracks in the vicinity of the police helicopter whilst under a service from Lakenheath. All
aircraft under a service from Lakenheath at the time were observed and recorded to be squawking
Modes A and C.
Another bit
Nevertheless, some members wondered why the Lakenheath Approach controller had not concluded that the several calls made by the EC135 pilot regarding ‘drones’ in the area may have been of importance to their own situational awareness. As such, it was suggested that there had been an opportunity to have responded with words to the effect of “nothing seen on radar” or to have passed Traffic Information on the F15 or, indeed, to have passed Traffic Information to the pilot of the F15 on a possible drone sighting. Some members wondered whether the ATC staff’s reaction to an ‘unusual occurrence’ had impacted their situational awareness of the traffic situation.
We must always speak truth to power.
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