Cairo RAF Encounter 1956

On July 14, 1956, an RAF Canberra PR.3 photo-reconnaissance aircraft crew operating with No. 13 Squadron from Cairo West Airfield in Egypt encountered an unidentified object at 30,000 feet during a reconnaissance training sortie. The Canberra's navigator activated their aerial reconnaissance cameras and obtained several photographs of the object before it accelerated away to the southwest. Cairo West radar confirmed the contact. The photographs were immediately classified by RAF Middle East Air Force intelligence officers. The encounter occurred just weeks before the nationalization of the Suez Canal would trigger the Suez Crisis — a time of heightened intelligence activity in the Middle East. The RAF's Middle East Air Force investigation produced a classified report that entered both RAF and US intelligence files through the UK-US SIGINT and imagery intelligence sharing agreements. The Canberra crew's training in photographic reconnaissance meant their documentation of the object was of considerably higher technical quality than most witness reports.