The Lakenheath and Bentwaters Radar Case
The account
Radars at two bases picked up fast-moving targets, and a fighter sent to intercept was supposedly chased by one of them.
What investigators found
The Condon Report found the case puzzling; skeptics point to false radar echoes and the Perseid meteors falling that night.
The story
On the night of August 13 to 14, 1956, radar operators at the Bentwaters and Lakenheath bases in Suffolk, then used by the US Air Force, tracked targets that seemed to move very fast and stop abruptly. In the early hours, the Royal Air Force scrambled two Venom fighters from RAF Waterbeach. The pilot of the first one reported that the radar target maneuvered and stayed on his tail for several minutes.
The 1968 Condon Report judged a conventional explanation unlikely. Years later, however, the fighter crews said in interviews that they had seen only weak radar contacts and nothing visible. Skeptical journalist Philip Klass blamed the episode on false radar echoes combined with meteors from the Perseid shower, which was intense that night.