The British defence secretary, visiting the base at the time, was taken into "a windowless room" just before he was due to dial into a COBRA meeting.
The warning system at the base is quite unsophisticated, unable to be specific like the Israeli equivalent, and so the alarms are sounded out of caution, not necessarily because something is incoming, but it did underline the threat to the island, so close to Lebanon and the Iranian proxy Hezbollah which is believed to be responsible for the attacks.
One drone did get through the defences on Sunday. It flew undetected, low to the sea, and was described as "tiny".
But it still managed to put a hole in a hangar normally used to house American U2 spy planes.
It probably wasn't a lucky shot: the hangar, with two U2s parked outside, is clearly visible on Google Maps.
In my interview with John Healey I asked him when the option to deploy a Royal Navy destroyer first hit his desk. He suggested he'd had options for weeks. I pressed him to clarify it was his decision to delay then, and he didn't disagree.
But afterwards, defence sources told me the Royal Navy only gave him the option on Tuesday.
Either way, whether military planners or the defence secretary himself, the plan came too late for the Cypriot government and people on the island.
The ship won't depart until next week. A French frigate, the Languedoc, has already arrived off Cyprus. Based in Toulon, it was already much closer of course, but notably able to leave port immediately.
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Cyprus is being targeted because of the presence of British military, and they expect the UK to defend it accordingly.
Britain did take some precautions before the war with Iran started. Six F35 jets were sent to complement eight Typhoons permanently stationed in Cyprus.
Some of those F35s have been used to shoot down drones over Jordan in recent days.
Ground based, short range air defences have also been deployed and Wildcat helicopters, which have a capability to detect drones, are due to arrive in Cyprus over the weekend.
Senior military commanders argue that events have moved quickly, which they have, although the drumbeat to war was getting louder for weeks and Iran made no secret of its threat to attack widely across the region in response.
Attacks on RAF Akrotiri, which houses US personnel and belongs to Britain, still historically one of Iran's main enemies, should not have come as a surprise.
The British government originally denied the Americans access to use British bases for attacks on Iran because they didn't agree with the legal basis for the war. It has now reversed that decision based on the theory that American strikes on Iranian missile batteries are helping defend the region, and thereby British interests, from Iranian attacks.
On those grounds, would Britain go further and join in with offensive attacks, I asked the defence secretary. Three times he refused to rule that out.
While there are often briefings out of cabinet and Parliamentary Labour Party meetings, revealing details of top-secret talks held by the NSC "should be a red line", the former deputy Labour leader said.
Her comments on Sky's Electoral Dysfunction podcast come after intimate details of NSC deliberations held just preceding and following the beginning of the US-Israeli war on Iran were revealed by The Spectator.
The magazine reported that at a meeting last Friday, Sir Keir Starmer wanted to allow the US to use British bases for political reasons, but was blocked by four cabinet ministers, led by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.
The prime minister then agreed to it for defensive purposes on Sunday after the US made a formal request the previous day.
Although Sir Keir has said there was not a "specific decision to be made" on the Friday, the government has not denied the story, so this appears to be the first leak of top-secret NSC deliberations since 2019.
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Speaking to our political editor Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Baroness Harman hit out at the leaker or leakers, saying national security discussions need to be held in private.
She said: "The prime minister has got to be able to go to his NSC and discuss issues with colleagues - that's how government functions."
'Red line' has been crossed
Details of cabinet meetings and weekly meetings of Labour MPs often leak, and although Harman "disapproves" of that, "it's not the end of the world".
"But there should be a real red line against briefing out of National Security Council," she continued.
"It's particularly worrying because it seems the briefing is not criticising the decision. They're supporting the decision, but they're just saying it wasn't Keir Starmer's original decision - he was just overridden by other members of the cabinet.
"So I think it's utterly dysfunctional and destructive, and I thoroughly disapprove of it. I'm really dismayed about it.
"Any prime minister needs to be able to discuss with the cabinet colleagues in the NSC and actually not be undermined."
Former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson agreed, saying the NSC should be "a sacrosanct space where the most top-level security people" are "able to discuss things and make decisions in the national interest".
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Leaks from the NSC are rare, and the last time conversations appeared in the media was in 2019, when contents of two meetings were published in newspapers.
In September that year, details of an NSC meeting about bringing back the British children of Islamic State fighters in camps in northern Syria were published by the Mail On Sunday.
Before that, in April, details of an NSC meeting about whether Chinese firm Huawei should be involved in the UK's 5G network were published in The Daily Telegraph.
Then prime minister Theresa May launched an internal leak inquiry, which led to the firing of the then defence secretary, Sir Gavin Williamson, although he denied being responsible.
Downing Street has not said if Sir Keir has launched an inquiry after the leak of last week's NSC meetings.
We saw residents stuffing themselves into cars - or trying to leave on foot with whatever they could carry on their back.
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The Israeli military had issued an evacuation order on four separate districts in the city's southern suburbs and half a million people or more had taken to the streets.
They were united by one single aim: to flee the capital as quickly as they could.
The fear was self-evident - that Israeli planes and drones will obliterate their homes.
'It's so dangerous'
We managed to grab a word with one man preparing to flee. His wife cradled a small child on the back of his battered-looking moped.
"The whole place is under threat; it seems they're going to strike, we've got to pick up our family and flee," he said.
His wife added: "With all these threats and strikes, it's so dangerous, it is not safe at all."
He then guided his bike into the snarling traffic.
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The words of a far-right Israeli cabinet minister have amplified the anxiety here.
The Beirut suburb of Dahiya, said Bezalal Smotrich, would resemble the decimated city of Khan Younis in Gaza.
"You wanted to bring hell on us, you brought hell on yourselves. Dahiyah will look like Khan Younis. Our citizens of the north will live quietly, in peace and in security," he declared.
What seems clear to people in Lebanon is that the Israelis are now making the rules.
Residents in southern Lebanon have also been ordered to leave their homes and head north beyond the Litani River - and we discovered their air campaign was well under way in the coastal city of Tyre.
'We have nowhere to go'
We were taken to a bomb site by a member of Hezbollah's media arm, who told us we were looking at the city power station.
A giant tank holding diesel was punctured with holes and a tower supporting solar panels had collapsed. The site was stinking, smoking wreck and Tyre no longer had electricity.
We wondered why some city residents had decided to stay.
Hussein Chehadeh told us the reason was simple - he had "no money", he said, and had the pressure of paying for children, petrol, houses, and rent.
"Our problem here in the south", he said, [is] "we have nowhere to go".
Israel 'will not stop'
Mr Chehadeh and many others in the south are putting themselves at risk.
In exclusive footage passed to Sky News, we saw the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) taking up positions in the southern Lebanese hills, with the country's military chief of staff suggesting that Israel was prepared to go much further.
"We are striking forcefully, deeper inside Lebanon, and we will strengthen control in the south. We will not stop until Hezbollah is disarmed," said Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir.
It seems this military conflict may morph into all-out war - a contest and a potential catastrophe that could sweep up all in its path.
It comes after American media, including Sky's partner network NBC News, reported on their absence.
The justice department said some missing files brought to its attention had been wrongly labelled as "duplicative" in its spreadsheet, meaning they were not visible to the public, and had corrected the error.
They include summaries and notes from three separate interviews the FBI conducted with a woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted by Jeffrey Epstein, and abused by the now president.
Mr Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing, and he and the White House have said the Epstein files have exonerated him.
Sky News has contacted the White House for comment about the claims in the newly released files.
In an earlier statement on Thursday, the president's press secretary Karoline Leavitt said they are "completely baseless" and "backed by zero credible evidence".
The justice department has previously warned the files include unfounded accusations about the president.
What are the allegations?
The woman, from South Carolina, came forward to law enforcement after Epstein was arrested in 2019.
She alleged the billionaire financier assaulted her on Hilton Head Island, in her home state, when she was 13.
The alleged incident happened in or around 1984, according to a summary of an FBI interview.
The FBI conducted follow-up interviews on four separate dates in 2019: 24 July, 7 August, 20 August, and 16 October.
The dates were revealed as part of a catalogue of evidence against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's ex-girlfriend and convicted co-conspirator, which was released by the justice department.
But only the FBI's summary of the 24 July interview was initially included in the millions of documents comprising the Epstein files. It does not mention any allegations against Mr Trump.
It is the memos from the other three interviews that have now been published. The woman - whose name is redacted throughout - alleges abuse by Epstein and several associates, including, she claims, Mr Trump.
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'The claims are unfounded and false'
The justice department has reiterated its previous warning that the Epstein files contain false and unverified claims.
It was ordered to release the files by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Mr Trump signed into law late last year amid pressure from Republicans in Congress.
At the time of their release, the department said: "This production may include fake or falsely submitted images, documents or videos, as everything that was sent to the FBI by the public was included in the production that is responsive to the act.
"Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election.
"To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already."
The law mandating the release of the files allows the justice department to withhold records that contain victim information, child sexual abuse material, and anything that would jeopardise an active investigation or prosecution.
It prohibits withholding anything "on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary".
Nobody is under investigation in the US in relation to the Epstein files.
David Prescott, whose father served alongside Sir Tony Blair for 10 years, joined the Greens in October 2025, a year after his dad died.
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In a post on Facebook, Mr Prescott appears alongside Green activists in Gorton and Denton, which last week delivered the party's first by-election victory in its history.
An accompanying caption read: "What. A. Day. Hope Beat Hate."
'John would be furious'
Karl Turner, who succeeded John Prescott as the Labour MP for Hull East in the 2010 general election, told Sky News the defection was "hugely disappointing" but "no surprise."
"David was born into the Labour Party and like myself he was from a rock-solid socialist and trade union family," he said.
"Again like myself, David was politically active from a very young age. David was always his own man not his old man."
He added: "I suspect John Prescott would be furious if he was around today.
"But his anger would be aimed at the Labour Party for allowing progressive voters to leave Labour and go to what they see as a left-wing, more progressive alternative to the party he worked all of his adult life to elect into government, to change the lives of the many, not the few, for the better."
The news comes after Labour suffered one of its worst by-election defeats in Gorton and Denton, coming third behind Reform and the Greens.
The result has confirmed fears within Labour that as well as facing the risk of losing votes to Reform on the right, the Green Party also poses a threat to its fracturing base of progressive voters, who have drifted from Labour over issues including its stance on the war in Gaza.
On Tuesday, the Green Party leapfrogged Labour into second place in a sensational poll by YouGov for Sky News.
The party is up four points to 21%, driven to a significant extent by the publicity from the Gorton and Denton by-election, the pollster said.
Who is David Prescott?
David Prescott, one of John's two sons with his wife Pauline, previously ran to be a Labour candidate in a number of seats, including his father's seat of East Hull, as well as Greenwich and Woolwich and Hull West and Hessle, but failed to get selected.
However, he was successful in his bid to be the Labour candidate for Gainsborough in the 2015 general election, but lost to Conservative MP Edward Leigh.
Mr Prescott was suspended from his role as an aide to Jeremy Corbyn in 2017 following allegations of harassment. He denied the claims and the party did not suspend his membership at the time as no formal complaint was lodged against him.
A Green Party source said: "David has not publicly spoken about joining the Greens out of respect to friends who are still Labour members, councillors, and MPs. But he was one of 2,000 people who came to Gorton and Denton to help get Hannah elected, and we thank him for his support."
Read more from Sky News:
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'Punch in the face for Labour'
In the aftermath of the by-election defeat, which has been masked by the escalating conflict in the Middle East kickstarted by US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran, some Labour MPs have called on the prime minister to consider his position.
John Trickett, the Labour MP Normanton and Hemsworth, posted on X: "Labour lost votes in every direction and the same problem is replicated across the country. The result of bad political choices made by the PM. Labour needs new leadership."
Another Labour MP told Sky News the result was a "punch in the face for the Labour Party and for Keir Starmer's premiership" and argued in favour of a progressive alliance.
"This government has burned its base, alienated its core vote, sidelined its activists and stuck two fingers up to the very people we came into politics to represent. And we're surprised voters are walking away?" they said.
"Stopping Reform now has to be the priority. But Labour can't do that from a position of arrogance or denial. We will need to work with other progressive parties. That means cooperation. It means democratic reform. It means accepting we do not own the centre-left vote.
"None of that happens unless Labour changes fundamentally. Not tweaks. Not reshuffles. A clean break."
The prime minister admitted the Gorton and Denton performance had been "very disappointing" but said it was not uncommon for incumbent governments to lose by-elections and vowed to "keep fighting" for voters who elected him in the 2024 general election.
And in a message to his opponents in the Green Party and Reform, he added: "I will also fight against the extremes in politics on the right and on the left - parties who want to tear our country apart."
The Labour Party declined to comment on Mr Prescott's move.