South Wales Police Helicopter Encounter over St Athan

The night of 7 to 8 June 2008. A helicopter of the South Wales Police Air Support Unit waited over MOD St Athan, still widely called RAF St Athan, about 15 miles west of Cardiff. Its crew of three needed clearance to land. A month earlier, the Ministry of Defence had begun releasing its UFO files.

The time was 00:40. The helicopter was at about 500 feet. The pilot, known publicly only as Martin, saw something come up from below to meet it. A sphere. Translucent, like a bubble, about the size of a basketball. Inside it, side by side, a small red light and a small green light.

Then it stopped. About three feet outside the cockpit window. It kept pace with the helicopter, and the down-wash of the rotor blades had no effect on it. Both colleagues on board saw it too. Night vision could not pick it up. It had no heat signature.

Then it shot off down into a farmyard and disappeared. The crew hovered and searched. It reappeared, crossed a nearby road and made for the Bristol Channel coast. The helicopter followed toward North Devon until fuel ran low. Martin radioed air traffic control at Cardiff Airport.

20 June 2008. The Sun, in a story by John Coles, described a craft "flying saucer-shaped and circled by flashing lights" that "zoomed straight at the chopper as the three-man cop crew prepared to land." The pilot, it said, "banked sharply to avoid being hit, then launched into a high-speed pursuit."

South Wales Police confirmed only this: "South Wales Police can confirm its air support unit sighted an unusual aircraft. This was reported to the relevant authorities for their investigation." The force denied any attack, pursuit or danger to the crew. The Ministry of Defence added: "We've heard nothing about this. But it is certainly not advisable for police helicopters to go chasing what they think are UFOs."

24 June. The BBC offered an answer. A wedding party in Cowbridge, near St Athan, had released about thirty Chinese lanterns between 11pm and 2am that night. "There's no doubt in my mind it was our lanterns," said the groom, Lyn Thomas. The Associated Press counted 100 lanterns bought and wrote that the ministry concluded it was lanterns, though no official report saying so has been found. David Clarke, quoted by the AP, asked: "Call me cynical, but what are the chances that a flying saucer would come down from outer space in exactly the same place where lanterns have been released?"

Set beside the pilot's account, the fit is uneasy. A single sphere. No heat signature. Holding still in the rotor wash, then diving into a farmyard. A burning lantern would normally drift with the wind and show on thermal imaging.

In 2018 Martin told the story to Emlyn Williams of SUFON, and it looked nothing like a tabloid saucer. In September 2025 the pilot spoke again on Oystermouth Radio. The case appears on UK Pilots Reporting UAP, Gary Heseltine's site, and UFO Hunters covered the 2008 wave in "UFO Storm", with Nick Pope as guest.

It is often confused with 2016, when a police helicopter from the same base filmed a thermal-only object over the Bristol Channel. Metabunk forum members concluded it was probably an airliner landing at Exeter. The 2008 object showed no heat at all. No photograph of it exists.