Recent UK reports of unidentified objects in the sky tend to cluster around aviation near-misses logged by the UK Airprox Board, public videos of lights, and a handful of police or military accounts. Many turn out to be drones, aircraft, satellites or weather effects, but a few remain officially unexplained.
In April 2026 a commercial Airbus A319 pilot descending toward Gatwick reported a disc-shaped object, described as looking like a flying saucer with darker markings around the rim, passing the right wing at the same height. The estimated distance was 100–300 feet. The aircraft was already turning so no evasive manoeuvre was needed; the Airprox Board later assessed that safety had been reduced. Radar did not clearly identify the object. In the same period a Heathrow-bound Airbus A321 crew reported a drone close enough that they could see its colour, shape and spinning propellers.
In February 2026 two RAF pilots on an air-to-air refuelling mission over the North Sea off Cromer, Norfolk, at around 16,000 feet reported an unidentified object passing within 100–150 feet. One pilot in the tanker ducked. The object did not appear on radar.
On 23 August 2026 two witnesses in Wolverhampton recorded three lights holding a steady triangular formation as they moved across the western sky around 10 pm. The lights were discussed online; some suggested drones or satellites, but the formation and movement prompted UFO interest.
In November 2025 a triangular object with lights was photographed near the Merry Hill shopping centre in Dudley, West Midlands. Local observers compared it to earlier “Dudley Dorito” reports from 2010–2013.
A serving West Midlands police inspector published a collection of roughly 250 accounts from British officers spanning decades. Recent publicity around the book in early September 2026 included a 2024 Warwickshire report of “pixelating squares” that one firearms officer thought might have been a cloaked craft.
The UK no longer has a dedicated Ministry of Defence UFO desk. Aviation incidents go through the Civil Aviation Authority or Airprox Board; other reports are handled by private groups. Most public sightings of lights are later attributed to drones, Starlink trains, Chinese lanterns or aircraft, but the close-range pilot reports above have not been given a definitive conventional explanation.
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