UFO over Norfolk / Suffolk
 

Anglia News just reported a huge red circle in the sky over the Suffolk / Norfolk border last night (Monday 01 March) at about 1730. I thought it looked quite nice. Anyone know who it was?

I reckon they were working London Mil at about FL240. I did have a look at it on the DFTI, Whoops VRD, but can't remember the level or squawk.

Local news had theories about UFOs and "A military pilot celebrating Lord of the Rings success at the Oscars" :yuk:

Funny what the natives here get excited about, they'll be bringing the cattle in early tonight :rolleyes:


LXGB

Missed that one!

I did see some re lights apparently in the vicinity of Gt. Yarmouth at around 2000 though.

They looked like flares, and appeared in a line of about 4/5 for approx 5 secs. before fading out quite quickly, and appeared again in a sort of flattened box shape in what seemed to be the same area about 30 secs later.

I didn't see any aircraft lights at the time and it was a clear night

Any ideas?

Tim

Tim,

Mil AC do not always fly round with their lights on (or bright enough to be perceived by the eye).

MT

http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/funstuf..._ring_01.shtml



Lord of the loops - the perfect circle
A mystery ring which appeared in the Norfolk sky on Monday 1 March has been explained by air traffic control at Norwich Airport.

A US military pilot carrying out an air test at 35,000 feet - about six and a half miles high - flew a perfect circle above Dereham.

The weather conditions meant he left a vapour trail which could be seen from as far away as Norwich.

People from across the county have sent in their photos of loop in one of our most popular photo galleries ever. Thanks to everyone who sent in their snaps.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/funstuf...ie_russell.jpg


http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/funstuf..._giller_01.jpg

Yep could see it from the Suffolk Coast at around 1800rs, very deep blue sky with a huge perfect reddish/orange circle.

Damned impressive though!

ps This item featured on ITV About Anglia at 1825 hrs tonight.

The USAF at RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk has confirmed it was an F-15E Strike Eagle on a training mission at 33000' no reasons were given as to why the pilot did this nor would they name the 'top gun' involved

pps Correct MOTF Mildenhall moved to Fairford whilst Mildenhall runway under repair for 6 months :ok:

Could see it from North Suffolk and it looked very impressive in the evening light. I took a couple of pictures of it and tried to post them on here last night but not techie enough to work out how to post a photo on here.

Must have been a Russian Mi-26!

Boom, boom

:yuk:

The Lakenheath boys arent at Fairford, the Mildenhall boys are.

Try this:

http://www.sea-cliff.co.uk/lordofthering.jpg

Local reports suggest the ring was centered on Dereham, but get very confused about likely altitudes.

Aerobelly

MT - I realise that all too well. And with an ex going on at the moment with all sorts of a/c flying about hither and yon, I am sure that's what it was - It's just a very unusual occurence to have an a/c chuck out flares and wondered if anybody else had seen it.
I suppose not :)

I'm about 18 miles due east of Lakenheath.

I happened to be outside and watched a contrail start to turn - as it went past 180, I kind of guessed that he would do a 360 - he actually did three and a half orbits before he headed off to the north east.

Really was v impressive and has generated enormous v positive publicity for the local USAF.

Stik

Years ago I was a driving up the A1 just North of Grantham. It was, for UK, a very cold morning with bright blue skies. Off to my right I spotted a ‘contrail’ almost at ground level gently arcing upwards. ‘Ground level - couldn’t be a contrail - then it was obvious. The Red Arrows were at Scampton and it was a single aircraft trailing white smoke.

Anyway, the gentle climbing arc was held, and held, and held.

This guy produced a perfect semi circle that must have reached 25,000 feet. But could he do the same on the way down? He did! Perfect white circle against a brilliant blue sky, and with a diameter of some 5 miles.

I’d like to think that this was a bet from the previous night in the bar. ‘I’m such a s..t hot pilot that I can produce a perfect smoke circle to 25,000 and back again’. Hope he did a straight in with smoke to finish off.
:ok:

Tim,

It's not that unusual to deploy flares (IMHE, depending upon where you are of course - unless things have changed a lot since I was last in the UK).

Have you had a 'close aboard' with a lights off mil jet or something, your choice of words looked a bit like a 'read between the lines!' comment?

All the best,

MT

Stars and Stripes
European edition, Wednesday, March 3, 2004



RAF LAKENHEATH, England — A large white halo that appeared in the sky over eastern England on Monday evening and spiked the curiosity of thousands was caused by aircraft from the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath, a base spokesman said.

Aircraft and meteorological conditions were right to form the circle from the vapor trails of two F-15E Strike Eagles from the 492nd Fighter Squadron, said 1st Lt. Ed Ekpoudom.

The circle in the sky caught the attention of thousands of people throughout East Anglia and was the subject of newspaper and radio reports on Tuesday.

“It was very strange, like a smoke ring in the sky,” one person told the East Anglian Daily Times.

Ekpoudom said the base public affairs office was inundated by calls Tuesday morning from local media outlets wondering if the base’s aircraft were somehow responsible.

He discovered that, indeed, the American aircraft were responsible. He said the aircraft were flying at 33,000 feet when the vapor trails formed the mysterious circle. Conditions were such, he said, that any aircraft flying in the area above 24,000 feet would have produced the same effect.

A combination of wind, temperatures and humidity created the unusual pattern.

While press accounts Tuesday pondered whether ice crystals in the atmosphere could have been responsible, one man told the East Anglian Daily Times that he suspected the halo was the result of aircraft.

“We don’t think it was anything special,” said the meteorological officer at Wattisham Airfield. “It was probably an aircraft having a jolly.”

Direct Link :
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?...&article=20807





LXGB

Guys, lots of F15s playing lights out intercepts at the moment until about 2030 all over East Anglia and the North Sea. Very definately dumping flares and chaff over the sea!!

I was told a story of a similar phenomena which took place some years ago. It was a favourite story of the perpertrator, he told me about in person when he was my Station Commander.

This pilot from RAF Valley inadvertently drew a huge set of male genitalia over west Wales (a few miles straight and level, a 180 turn onto reciprocal track followed by a figure of eight)

It caused so much of a rumpus that a formation of four Hunters was scrambled to go up and cross it out! :cool:

big rings
 

how come the con trail only appeared for the circular bit, i.e. how did the driver turn it off for the entry/exit?

Good point, Windy!

There is a thing called a TAC-forecast (here), that gives the contrail layers for the day. The smart fighter pilot positions just below - or above - that layer so noone sneaks up.

Many years ago "one" painted "ØL" in the sky above Denmark. An easy word meaning "BEER" in Danish. Only done once, as he was soon sorted out!

Bets Regards

Contrail willies were a favourite trick a few years ago. The otherwise quite dull boss of a certain Hunter squadron let one drift over Manchesterr, tha' knaws, in the mid '70s - but the best one I herad about was back in the '50s when someone (RAFVR?) in a Meatbox (?) drew one over Edinburgh one Sunday. This rather perplexed the straight-laced Jockistani chief god-botherer who rang up Leuchars to complain. The sqn boss then led the whole squadron up to contrail height, formed into line abreast and flew through the offending symbol, then did some clever formation turn and repeated the process on a 90 deg different track... If the contrail willy hadn't been noticed the first time, it certainly was by the time they'd finished 'crossing it out'!

This pic always amazes me. Done by an RAF E3 15th April 1993.


http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/gif/lovely/awacs_c.jpg