Neither object appeared on radar, and both were operating at heights far beyond the capability of most commercially available drones, raising questions about who was responsible for the flights amid mounting concern over hostile states deploying drones to monitor Western military activity.
The first encounter took place on February 18, when an RAF Airbus Voyager tanker was refuelling a Typhoon fighter jet off the coast of Cromer, Norfolk. The unidentified object passed so close overhead that the Voyager’s pilot instinctively ducked.
Audio recordings reviewed by investigators captured the pilot alerting military controllers: “Uh yeah, just had something go overhead of us – potential drone at one seven zero – have you got anything on your screen?”
When the radar controller confirmed nothing was visible on his display, the pilot responded: “Okay that’s copied it was, uh, it was a pretty small uh I would say kind of size of a drone and travelling east to west literally just went straight overhead.”
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