Coast to Coast - November 12, 2020 - Triangular UFOs

 

As those of you who visit here regularly know, I do something that I call chasing footnotes. Sometimes it’s just chasing references to find the original source. This latest episode came about because I wondered when the first triangular-shaped UFO had been reported. I wondered this because reports of triangles seemed to have exploded in the last few years, but this wasn’t a shape widely reported in the past.

I found several references that suggested that the first recorded triangle sighting was made in the 1890s in the Dutch East Indies. None of these sources gave any details and it took a while to track this down.

I eventually made it to David Marler’s book about Triangular UFOs: An Estimate of the Situation, but that wasn’t the end of the trail. Marler quoted Don Keyhoe who seems to be the source. Keyhoe reported on the sighting in his Flying Saucers Are Real. You can read the book here:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5883

Keyhoe wrote that in 1890 “several large bodies were sighted hovering over the Dutch East Indies. Most accounts described them as roughly triangular, about one hundred feet on the base and two hundred feet on the sides. But some observers thought they might be longer and narrower, with a rounded base; this would make them agree with more recent stories of cone-shaped objects with rounded tops seen in American skies.” This all the Keyhoe said about the sighting and he provides no references for us.

That wasn’t the earliest of the triangular UFO sightings, however. According to Marler, the Scientific American (vol 46 pg. 49) reported that people in Lebanon, Connecticut, on July 3, 1882, saw two luminous appearances on “the moon’s upper limb (as Fort wrote [which Marler cites as his source]). These disappeared and were replaced by two dark, triangular appearances three minutes later on the moon’s lower limb.”

I have tried to track this down but have failed. The Scientific American is on line and I have read through that issue. It is also true that I might have missed it. Depending on how important the story was it might have been just a quick, small note. And, it’s important to remember that the Scientific American is not the same as it is today. It was more of a newspaper in the 19^th century.

This, of course, showed that reports of triangular UFOs have been around for

A young Mike Rogers.

decades. It wasn’t until late in the 20^th century that they came to prominence. During the Phoenix Lights in 1999, there were sightings of a triangular UFO that moved from Nevada south toward the Phoenix area. Mike Rogers, yes, that Mike Rogers, told me he had seen the object as it passed overhead. He said that it was huge and that although he attempted to interest others in his report, they were more focused on the lights seen over the city than they were of a dark object that didn’t fit the narrative. His sighting of the triangle, and that of others, was lost in the discussion of the Phoenix Lights.

One of the more exciting sightings of a triangle seemed to be from El Paso, Texas, on August 31, 2018. The witness said that he was driving to work when he saw the strange, triangular-shaped object. He said that he thought it was weird so he grabbed his cell phone, took several pictures of it and then made a short video. Here is the link:

https://www.mufon.com/?gclid=CjwKCAiA17P9BRB2EiwAMvwNyOXZiWETw2dei50umg5USTDsWYvQfV1xGtai-kN_RL8_i4B8DQ0tvRoCMWcQAvD_BwE

However, I did reach out to Marc D’Antonio who is MUFON’s photo expert. He told me, “There’s definitely something illuminated by the sun which is also in the shot up behind some clouds… It appears to me that it could very well be a jet contrail that’s extremely foreshortened being illuminated by the sun from this particular angle... My thoughts anyway. Either way it doesn’t appear to be too mysterious. It is after all illuminated by the sun and stays in the same relative position.”  

Triangle sightings are an on-going phenomenon. According to Peter Davenport, there have been over 200 reports of triangles in the first half of 2020. Here are just a few of the sightings reported to the National UFO Reporting Center.

Peter Davenport

At 9:00 pm on Thursday October 1st, [in Cedar Rapids] I was taking out my garbage when I saw an aircraft slowly coming towards my home, west to east, going towards Mt. Vernon [Iowa]. I thought it was a helicopter but then as it came to be almost above my head, I realized it was not. It was flat metal gray, almost black, it wouldn’t be easy to see had it not had lights on it. It was triangular in shape but the points were flat, not pointed. It spanned maybe 10 feet across and was 10 feet in length. It had two bright lights on the front, like headlights, and a light on each wing, I guess, one was red and one was green. Both blink opposite of the other. It was traveling at I would say approximately 20-30 mph. It wasn’t fast. I yelled for my friend Cody to come outside when it was directly over me. It was very low, only about 6 feet above the tree outside my balcony. And the sound it made was that if a very far away jet. So oddly super quiet but very distinct. I saw no propellers, nothing moved! or it produced no wind at all and it stayed traveling at the same speed until it was out of site. A car driving by stopped to watch it go by as well, so technically 3 witnesses but Cody came and saw it just as it was passing over head. Not sure what it was. But it was not a helicopter or a plane, at least not any that I know exist. If it was a drone, it was a huge effing drone. We had completely cloud cover the sky not even 10 minutes after this happened.

Also, on October 1, from Johnson City, Tennessee, came this. I was taking my husband to work and as I’m getting closer to his job I happen to look to my left and notice this large object in the sky that looks triangular. I mean it could have been another shape but from the distance it looked like a triangle. It was roughly around 5:53 am this morning and the three big white circles of the lights were in a triangle position it was at a vertical position which I thought strange, it was very, very bright so I figured maybe a plane but then it was just sitting there and I thought that’s odd and kept looking as I’m trying to drive. It reminded me of a Christmas tree position just hanging out. I saw a little red on it at one point on the right side of the craft would be our left side... but the farther I got, the more distant it was but it never moved ... I told him we needed to stop and video tape or take a photo but we were running behind and I tried to catch it on my way back it was gone by then. The location of the object looked perhaps in a wooded area and some back roads. Just from where I saw it and the location of where I was. I wanted to report it because I’ve seen so many aircraft in my time and I’m in a military family ... this was just weird.

On October 2, three triangles were seen over Berea, KY. The witness said, “Driving home and saw three spaced apart black triangular aircrafts with white and red lights hovering still over the interstate I-75. Two of them were hovering above the strip of land which separates the north and southbound lanes and one was hovering on the outskirts of the northbound lane. There was no noise.”

On October 5, in Pensacola, a tree cutting crew said that at dusk saw the triangle that they first thought was a helicopter but when it flew overhead, they could see the black triangle shape. It had a blinking white light at the front and two red lights in the rear. He got a very good look at it before it disappeared.

I should note here that these are merely reports and haven’t been investigated thoroughly yet. And, I mentioned, these are but a few of those reports. On October 1, there were several sightings of triangles reported to NUFORC. It does seem as if they are becoming more prominent.