Within Essex UFOs
What Do Essex Police UFO Logs Reveal?
Police logs show how UFO calls often become a mix of sincere witnesses, uncertain notes, drones, aircraft and possible meteors.
On this page
- How UFO calls were recorded from 2014 to 2024
- Braintree, Uttlesford, Tendring and other local reports
- What the logs can and cannot prove
Page outline Jump by section
Introduction
Essex Police UFO logs reveal a modern, practical pattern rather than a hidden official investigation into alien craft. From 2014 to 2024, the force recorded UFO-labelled incidents in its Command and Control system when the final call type was “UFO”, with entries ranging from sincere reports of bright orange lights, lines of objects, silent metallic shapes and airport-area alerts to likely drones, aircraft, flares, meteors and entertainment lights. Essex Police explicitly says the category exists because an alleged UFO could be an aircraft in distress or illegal aircraft activity, not because the police are trying to identify the ultimate origin of every strange light in the sky. [Essex Police]essex.police.ukufo reports 2014 to 2024ufo reports 2014 to 2024
That distinction matters. The logs are useful evidence of what people in Essex reported, where the reports clustered, and how call handlers framed the risk. They are not a scientific survey of the county’s skies. Read carefully, they show a county where UFO reports often arise at the overlap between ordinary skywatching, aviation corridors, drone anxiety, coastal and estuary lights, and occasional genuinely unresolved witness descriptions.
How UFO calls were recorded from 2014 to 2024
Essex Police’s published UFO page is based on previous Freedom of Information disclosures and states that the data was correct as at 30 September 2025. The force says the results were gathered from its Command and Control system where the final call type was “UFO”, and that the published incident comments are selected extracts with irrelevant material and personal details removed. [Essex Police]essex.police.ukufo reports 2014 to 2024ufo reports 2014 to 2024
This means the dataset is operational rather than investigative. It records calls that entered a police incident system, not every odd light seen in Essex and not every social-media report, astronomy-club report or airport safety report. A separate 2025 FOI response also confirmed that Essex Police recorded UFO or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena reports on its STORM incident recording system under the final call type “UFO”. [WhatDoTheyKnow]whatdotheyknow.comWhat Do They KnowUFO/UAP sightings - a Freedom of Information request to Essex Police - WhatDoTheyKnow…
The police rationale is narrow. Essex Police says UFO reports are recorded in line with the National Standards of Incident Recording, and that the report of an alleged UFO may relate to “an aircraft in distress” or “illegal aircraft activity”. It also says some records may reflect alleged aerial phenomena that elude obvious explanation, but that their possible origin is not a policing matter. [Essex Police]essex.police.ukufo reports 2014 to 2024ufo reports 2014 to 2024 The Home Office description of the National Standard for Incident Recording gives the wider reason: police incidents, whether crime or non-crime, should be recorded consistently and accurately for management and performance purposes. [GOV.UK]GOV.UKNational standard for incident recording counting rulesNational standard for incident recording counting rules
The result is a record of thresholds. Some calls were logged because a witness was worried, not because officers had verified a craft. Others were logged because aviation safety could not be ruled out. Several contain explanations inside the incident text itself, including aircraft waiting to land, possible drones, possible meteors, flares and local light displays. That makes the logs unusually valuable for a public UFO history of Essex: they preserve both the witness claim and the cautious administrative framing around it.
Braintree, Uttlesford, Tendring and other local reports
The Essex logs do not point to one single UFO “hotspot” in the dramatic sense. They show repeated reports across built-up, rural, coastal and airport-linked parts of the county, with certain districts standing out because their local environment makes sightings more likely to be noticed or misread.
Braintree appears in the 2015 entries with a report of a bright orange light seen to the south, making no sound and moving very quickly. The witness described a vertical-shaped aircraft and said the light “sped off”. [Essex Police]essex.police.ukufo reports 2014 to 2024ufo reports 2014 to 2024 On its own, that does not prove anything unusual. It does, however, match a recurring Essex pattern: orange or bright single lights, short observation windows, little depth perception, and confident witness rejection of familiar explanations.
Uttlesford is more structurally important because it includes the Stansted area. In 2015, a caller reported four or five lights in the Newport or Stansted Airport direction, while an off-duty Hertfordshire officer reported five or six lights above the Saffron Walden direction. The log notes that a supervisor checked and found five aircraft in the area waiting to land, with the lights possibly coming from Stansted Airport’s direction. [Essex Police]essex.police.ukufo reports 2014 to 2024ufo reports 2014 to 2024 This is one of the clearest examples of the logs doing useful work: a UFO report becomes less mysterious once it is placed in an airport arrival context.
Tendring shows a different pattern: lower-level, localised objects that sound closer to drones or small aircraft. In 2015, one Tendring report described a buzzing object with red and white flashing lights outside a home for about 20 minutes; the caller wondered whether it might belong to the police. Another Tendring entry described several red and green lights flying close together at a height the witness associated with a helicopter, accompanied by a droning noise, while the caller insisted they were not planes, helicopters, lanterns or drones. [Essex Police]essex.police.ukufo reports 2014 to 2024ufo reports 2014 to 2024 These reports are interesting because they sit right on the boundary between “UFO” as an unexplained object and “UFO” as a practical shorthand for a possible drone or aircraft.
Basildon, Colchester, Chelmsford, Southend-on-Sea, Rochford, Maldon, Ongar, Waltham Abbey, Clacton-on-Sea and the M25 also appear in the modern logs. The spread matters more than any single pin on a map. Essex has rural darkness, estuary horizons, major roads, commuter towns, two London-branded airports, military and emergency-service aircraft movements, and a public increasingly familiar with drones and satellite trains. Those ingredients make repeated sky reports unsurprising even when individual witnesses are sincere.
The airport reports are the highest-stakes entries
Most Essex Police UFO logs are low-stakes sightings by members of the public. The airport-linked reports are different because they touch aviation safety.
The most important entry is the 2022 Stansted Airport report in which the incident was placed on as a UFO because three aircraft reported an object in their vicinity. The log says the tower reported that two aircraft had been alerted to something about 500 feet below them while coming in to land on Runway 22. Their Traffic Collision Avoidance System, or TCAS, alerted them, but none of the pilots saw anything when they looked. [Essex Police]essex.police.ukufo reports 2014 to 2024ufo reports 2014 to 2024
Another 2022 entry, recorded under Hertfordshire but linked to Stansted departure traffic, says a Ryanair aircraft climbing out from Stansted at 4,000 feet saw a black object pass within 20 metres. The aircraft was travelling at 230 mph, the object was moving north to south, and the log notes that it was possibly a drone although Stansted’s drone monitoring equipment had not picked it up. [Essex Police]essex.police.ukufo reports 2014 to 2024ufo reports 2014 to 2024 Contemporary reporting based on the FOI material repeated the same core details: a black object, a Stansted climb-out, a 20-metre estimated separation, and no detection by drone monitoring equipment. [Extra.ie]extra.ieRyanair Plane Came 'Within 20 Metres' Of UFO, PoliceRyanair Plane Came 'Within 20 Metres' Of UFO, Police
These reports should not be treated as alien-craft claims. They should be treated as airspace-safety records where “unidentified” genuinely matters. UK drone rules are relevant here because the Civil Aviation Authority says a Flight Restriction Zone is an area around an airport, airfield, heliport or spaceport where drones or model aircraft cannot be flown without permission. [Civil Aviation Authority]caa.co.ukOpen source on caa.co.uk. NATS, the UK air traffic services provider, similarly states that it is illegal to fly a drone within these restricted zones unless permission has been obtained from air traffic control or the airport. [NATS UK]nats-uk.ead-it.comNATS UKNATS UK | UAS Restriction ZonesNATS UKNATS UK | UAS Restriction Zones
Stansted’s presence also helps explain why ordinary lights can become extraordinary to witnesses. The airport describes itself as London’s third airport, serving more than 27 million passengers a year, and says it operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. [Stansted Airport]stanstedairport.comStansted Airport Facts and figures | London Stansted AirportStansted Airport Facts and figures | London Stansted Airport Its own 2026 media release said passenger numbers passed 30 million in 2025 for the first time in its history. [mediacentre.stanstedairport.com]mediacentre.stanstedairport.comBusiest ever year at London Stansted as passenger numbers top 30mBusiest ever year at London Stansted as passenger numbers top 30m In that environment, stacked arrivals, night operations, navigation lights, approach patterns, helicopters, drones and aircraft seen from unfamiliar angles all become part of Essex’s UFO-reporting ecology.
Lines, balls and convoys: the satellite-era pattern
One of the most revealing changes in the Essex logs is the appearance of line and convoy descriptions from 2020 onwards. In Ongar in 2020, a caller reported 30 or 40 lights in convoy, first around 10 in an exact line, then further groups moving along the same track from west to east. [Essex Police]essex.police.ukufo reports 2014 to 2024ufo reports 2014 to 2024 In Colchester in 2021, a witness reported 27 plain white lights in a straight line, covering about a mile and heading north-east; the informant had checked a flight-tracking service and could not see anything. [Essex Police]essex.police.ukufo reports 2014 to 2024ufo reports 2014 to 2024
Those entries strongly resemble the public-reporting pattern created by satellite trains, especially newly launched Starlink satellites. This does not prove that every Essex line-of-lights case was Starlink, but it gives a plausible modern explanation for many reports of evenly spaced lights moving together across the night sky. Sky News reported in 2021 that a string of lights had been determined to be SpaceX Starlink satellites, while astronomy and space explainers commonly note that Starlink trains are most visible shortly after launch and can look like a fast-moving line of lights. [Sky News]news.sky.comOpen source on sky.com.
The Essex entries show why such sightings are compelling. A train of lights can look deliberate, silent and coordinated. To a witness, it may not behave like a plane, helicopter, lantern or drone. To an investigator, the useful questions are different: were multiple people in the region reporting the same line at the same time, did the direction and timing match satellite predictions, and was the sighting shortly after sunset or before sunrise when low-Earth-orbit satellites are often illuminated while the ground is dark?
This is where modern UFO interpretation differs from older county folklore. A 1970s or 1980s line of lights would have led researchers towards aircraft formations, military exercises or advertising lights. A 2020s line of lights has to include satellite constellations near the top of the explanation list.
Meteors, flares and local light shows in the logs
Some Essex Police entries contain their own likely explanation. In 2018 on the M25, a caller saw a green fluorescent light “like a comet” coming from the sky. [Essex Police]essex.police.ukufo reports 2014 to 2024ufo reports 2014 to 2024 In 2020 near Saffron Walden, a caller described a low “flaming ball” about the size of a football, with flames coming out of the back, heading towards Radwinter; in 2022 at Dunmow, a caller reported a very bright white light that might have been a meteor or “something else”. [Essex Police]essex.police.ukufo reports 2014 to 2024ufo reports 2014 to 2024 Fireballs are especially bright meteors, and UK fireball-reporting networks encourage witnesses to report them because multiple observations can help calculate trajectories. [The UK Fireball Alliance]ukfall.org.ukOpen source on ukfall.org.uk.
The 2024 Colchester flare entry is even clearer. A caller described huge “goldy orangey” lights and thought one might be a flare; the log later records a call from RMP Colchester saying these were flares and that the same circumstances would occur the following night. [Essex Police]essex.police.ukufo reports 2014 to 2024ufo reports 2014 to 2024 That is a textbook example of a sighting being unresolved at the moment of the emergency call but later explained within the same operational record.
Southend-on-Sea provides another grounded example. In 2024, a caller reported three strange purple flashing or strobe lights and wondered whether they could be explosions. The log records that, after discussion with a supervisor, one person mentioned that Adventure Island did a purple strobe sky light show; the report was then noted as most likely from Adventure Island. [Essex Police]essex.police.ukufo reports 2014 to 2024ufo reports 2014 to 2024 Again, the value of the log is not that it proves a UFO. It shows the everyday path from anxiety to local explanation.
Maldon’s 2024 report sits somewhere between the mundane and the genuinely cautious. The caller described a completely black object, perhaps a parachute with something dangling beneath it, floating in different directions and possibly carrying a person. The caller phoned because someone might be in trouble. [Essex Police]essex.police.ukufo reports 2014 to 2024ufo reports 2014 to 2024 That is exactly the sort of case police should record even if the object later turns out to be a balloon, parachute canopy, kite, drone-related object or something else.
What the logs can and cannot prove
The Essex Police UFO logs prove that people across Essex reported unusual aerial objects and lights to police between 2014 and 2024. They also prove that some reports were taken seriously enough to be recorded under an operational call type, especially where aircraft distress, illegal flying, drones or possible danger could not be ruled out. They do not prove that any object was extraterrestrial, exotic technology or even physically present in the way the witness perceived it.
The main strengths of the logs are their immediacy and their unpolished detail. They preserve witness language: “bright orange light”, “30/40 lights in convoy”, “metal structure”, “solid oval shape”, “black object”, “purple lights”, “possible flare”. They also preserve uncertainty, including call-handler impressions and later explanations. That is more useful than a polished retelling because it lets readers see how ambiguous sightings actually enter official systems.
The main weaknesses are just as important:
- The dataset is not a complete sky survey. It includes incidents recorded by Essex Police under a specific final call type, not all sightings in Essex.
- The comments are selected extracts. Essex Police states that non-relevant content was omitted and personal details were redacted. [Essex Police]essex.police.ukufo reports 2014 to 2024ufo reports 2014 to 2024
- The police system was not built for UFO research. Essex Police warns that its systems are designed mainly for managing individual cases, not for answering FOI data queries, and that extracted data may contain inaccuracies. [Essex Police]essex.police.ukufo reports 2014 to 2024ufo reports 2014 to 2024
- Many entries lack enough technical detail. Without exact time, viewing direction, duration, weather, altitude estimate, video, radar, flight data or multiple independent witnesses, a sighting can remain unidentified without being evidentially strong.
- Some “unidentified” entries are only temporarily unidentified. The Colchester flares and Southend light-show entries show how quickly a UFO label can become a mundane explanation. [Essex Police]essex.police.ukufo reports 2014 to 2024ufo reports 2014 to 2024
That last point is central. A UFO log is not a verdict. It is a record that, at the time of reporting, something in the sky was not identified by the caller or could not immediately be dismissed by the call handler.
What the modern Essex pattern really suggests
The modern Essex pattern is best understood as a layered one. The county produces reports because it has busy airspace, airport approaches, estuary horizons, coastal lights, rural dark-sky pockets, drones, satellites, meteors and an alert public. Some witnesses are worried about safety. Some are simply puzzled. Some use “UFO” in the older popular sense; others are reporting what may be a drone, flare or aircraft hazard.
The most credible modern Essex cases are not necessarily the strangest-sounding ones. They are the ones with better context: multiple aircraft involved, tower or TCAS references, repeat witnesses, a precise location, a known aviation environment, or a later explanation in the log. The Stansted entries matter because they intersect with aviation safety. The Colchester and Ongar line-of-lights entries matter because they show how satellite-era phenomena reshape UFO reporting. The Southend and Colchester 2024 entries matter because they demonstrate how local explanations can resolve initially alarming calls.
For Essex UFO history, the police logs are therefore less a catalogue of mysteries than a map of modern uncertainty. They show how unexplained lights become official records, how some are quickly absorbed back into ordinary explanations, and how a smaller number remain unresolved mainly because the available evidence is too thin to decide either way.
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Endnotes
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Source: essex.police.uk
Title: ufo reports 2014 to 2024
Link: https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/essex-police/other-information/previous-foi-requests/ufo-reports-2014-to-2024/ -
Source: whatdotheyknow.com
Title: What Do They Know
Link: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ufouap_sightings_56Source snippet
UFO/UAP sightings - a Freedom of Information request to Essex Police - WhatDoTheyKnow...
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Source: GOV.UK
Title: National standard for incident recording counting rules
Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-national-standard-for-incident-recording-nsir-counting-rules -
Source: extra.ie
Title: Ryanair Plane Came ‘Within 20 Metres’ Of UFO, Police
Link: https://extra.ie/2023/11/13/news/ufo-ryanair-essex-police -
Source: stanstedairport.com
Title: Stansted Airport Facts and figures | London Stansted Airport
Link: https://www.stanstedairport.com/about-us/london-stansted-airport-and-mag/facts-and-figures/ -
Source: mediacentre.stanstedairport.com
Title: Busiest ever year at London Stansted as passenger numbers top 30m
Link: https://mediacentre.stanstedairport.com/busiest-ever-year-at-london-stansted-as-passenger-numbers-top-30m/ -
Source: news.sky.com
Link: https://news.sky.com/video/starlink-satellites-leads-to-ufo-reports-12297446 -
Source: space.com
Link: https://www.space.com/starlink-satellite-train-how-to-see-and-track-itSource snippet
Best viewing occurs just after sunset or before sunrise when satellites reflect sunlight while Earth’s surface is dark. Starlink orbits E...
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Source: essex.police.uk
Title: Get Paginated Results
Link: https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/accessing-information/published-items/GetPaginatedResults/?dir=&dt=Publication+scheme&fdte=&ic=217293&icsc=&page=1&tdte= -
Source: essex.police.uk
Title: Get Paginated Results
Link: https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/accessing-information/published-items/GetPaginatedResults/?bor=&dir=&dt=Disclosure+log%2CEnvironmental+information+regulation%2CPublication+scheme&fdte=&ic=&icsc=&page=2&q=&tdte= -
Source: essex.police.uk
Title: Get Paginated Results
Link: https://www.essex.police.uk/foi-ai/af/accessing-information/published-items/GetPaginatedResults/?dir=&fdte=&ic=&icsc=&page=4&q=Traffic+accident&tdte= -
Source: GOV.UK
Title: ufo reports in the uk
Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ufo-reports-in-the-uk -
Source: stanstedairport.com
Link: https://www.stanstedairport.com/ -
Source: mediacentre.stanstedairport.com
Title: london stansted soars to new heights with record breaking 2024
Link: https://mediacentre.stanstedairport.com/london-stansted-soars-to-new-heights-with-record-breaking-2024/ -
Source: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
Title: count nsir11
Link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7a3156ed915d6d99f5dd2e/count-nsir11.pdf -
Source: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
Title: ufo report 2009
Link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7582c440f0b6397f35efcb/ufo_report_2009.pdf -
Source: nsf.nats.aero
Title: aero Drone and Model Aircraft
Link: https://nsf.nats.aero/drones-and-model-aircraft/ -
Source: college.police.uk
Title: collection and recording
Link: https://www.college.police.uk/app/information-management/management-police-information/collection-and-recording -
Source: staffordshire.police.uk
Title: foi 17748 unidentified flying object sightings data
Link: https://www.staffordshire.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/foi-media/staffordshire/2025-published-foi-requests/january/foi-17748-unidentified-flying-object-sightings-data.pdf -
Source: essex-fire.gov.uk
Link: https://www.essex-fire.gov.uk/incidents -
Source: nationalarchives.gov.uk
Link: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-collection/explore-by-time-period/postwar/ufo-reports/ -
Source: northyorkshire.police.uk
Link: https://www.northyorkshire.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/foi-media/north-yorkshire-police/our-policies-and-procedures/corporate-development/national-standard-for-incident-recording-procedure2.pdf -
Source: police.uk
Title: www.police.uk Crime map
Link: https://www.police.uk/pu/your-area/essex-police/braintree-central/?tab=CrimeMap -
Source: devon-cornwall.police.uk
Link: https://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/foi-ai/devon–cornwall-police/disclosure-logs/2025-disclosures/ufo-sightings/ -
Source: space.blog.gov.uk
Title: recently launched starlink satellites hit by geomagnetic storm
Link: https://space.blog.gov.uk/2022/02/09/recently-launched-starlink-satellites-hit-by-geomagnetic-storm/ -
Source: london.gov.uk
Link: https://www.london.gov.uk/print/pdf/node/1289502 -
Source: westyorkshire.police.uk
Link: https://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-national-standard-for-incident-recording-nsir-counting-rules -
Source: legislation.gov.uk
Title: uksi 20230771 en
Link: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2023/771/pdfs/uksi_20230771_en.pdf -
Source: data.gov.uk
Link: https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/695f6775-3e51-4dd4-911a-19575638384c/recorded-crime-counting-rules/datafile/7c211a9a-3efd-4537-89e6-fda7d8837f82/preview -
Source: dyfed-powys.police.uk
Link: https://www.dyfed-powys.police.uk/foi-ai/dyfed-powys-police/publication-scheme/our-policies-and-procedures/Policies/criminal-investigation-department/crime–incident-recording–policy/ -
Source: ons.gov.uk
Link: https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/witnessesofunidentifiedaerialphenomena -
Source: space.com
Title: yellow green fireball united kingdom 2021
Link: https://www.space.com/yellow-green-fireball-united-kingdom-2021 -
Source: caa.co.uk
Link: https://www.caa.co.uk/drones/moving-on-to-more-advanced-flying/airspace/aerodromes-heliports-and-spaceports/ -
Source: nats-uk.ead-it.com
Title: NATS UKNATS UK | UAS Restriction Zones
Link: https://nats-uk.ead-it.com/cms-nats/opencms/en/uas-restriction-zones/ -
Source: ukfall.org.uk
Link: https://ukfall.org.uk/ -
Source: facebook.com
Title: Essex Police
Link: https://www.facebook.com/EPUttlesford/?locale=en_GB -
Source: essexlive.news
Title: stansted airport labelled ufo hotspot 9094587
Link: https://www.essexlive.news/whats-on/stansted-airport-labelled-ufo-hotspot-9094587 -
Source: caa.co.uk
Link: https://www.caa.co.uk/drones/reporting-concerns-about-safety-privacy-and-illegal-flying/uas-occurrence-reporting/ -
Source: caa.co.uk
Link: https://www.caa.co.uk/drones/open-category/drone-code/where-you-can-fly-points-3-to-9/ -
Source: britishaviationgroup.co.uk
Link: https://www.britishaviationgroup.co.uk/knowledge/stansted-airport-passes-30-million-passenger-mark-in-record-year/
Additional References
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Source: youtube.com
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHLRqxEmwksSource snippet
Brighton's UFOs: The Odd Sighting Spotted By A Policeman | Paranormal Files...
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Source: youtube.com
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p9yTJaee6gSource snippet
UFO over Ilford / mysterious light falling from sky London...
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Source: facebook.com
Link: https://www.facebook.com/wilphotographer/posts/a-fireball-was-seen-and-caught-on-camera-early-hours-of-this-morning-with-witnes/1489144646164035/ -
Source: instagram.com
Link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVrchTblAGd/?hl=en -
Source: instagram.com
Link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMQAYnFPs2n/ -
Source: skyscanner.net
Link: https://www.skyscanner.net/flights-from/sen/cheap-flights-from-london-southend-airport.html -
Source: londonsouthendairport.com
Link: https://londonsouthendairport.com/flights/departures/ -
Source: facebook.com
Link: https://www.facebook.com/BBCRadioYork/posts/did-you-spot-the-meteor-flying-across-the-sky-last-night-%EF%B8%8Fread-more-here/1568686858597486/ -
Source: amsmeteors.org
Link: https://www.amsmeteors.org/fireballs/faqf/ -
Source: imo.net
Link: https://www.imo.net/observations/fireballs/fireballs/
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