Select Triangular UFO Cases
(Bob Pratt files)
(9/7/2006 Links have been repaired)
March 18, 1965, 7:06 P.M. Takamatsu, Japan (MUFON). Pilots of two airliners flying from Osaka to Hiroshima reported being chased by a strange object over the Seto Inland Sea. The first aircraft, a Toa Air Lines Convair 240 with 28 passengers aboard, was over the Deshima Islands when the pilot suddenly noticed an oblong, luminescent object approaching his plane. It came close to the airliner, causing the pilot to make a 60-degree turn to avoid a collision. The object then stopped, made an abrupt turn and flew along with the aircraft for about three minutes. It finally disappeared toward Takamatsu. About 30 seconds later the pilot of a Tokyo Air Lines Piper Apache made an emergency radio call to the Takamatsu tower, saying a UFO was pursuing his plane over the city. The Convair pilot said the craft was about 15 meters in diameter and radiated a greenish light, which prevented him from determining the shape of the object. However, the chief engineer and two other workers of an electric company saw the object from the ground and reported it was "shaped like a triangle whose top radiated brilliant light. It was in sight for about 10 seconds."
June 1970. Near Ponce, Puerto Rico (MUFON). A pilot holding a high federal government position reported that at dawn pilots of two airliners sighted a large balloon-like object. It was drifting slowly southwestward at 5,000 to 7,000 feet and was subsequently detected on radar and tracked. Its movement was four to eight knots. The pilot was flying with the Puerto Rico National Guard and was a member of a flight of F-104s and a T-33 aircraft that went to the site. On becoming airborne from San Juan, the pilots could see the object. It was approximately 40 miles southwest of Ponce and above 60,000 feet. The pilot flying the T-33 and the pilots of the four F-104s all noted that the object was (1) a manufactured item, (2) at least 125 feet in both width and length, (3) shaped like the forward third of a speedboat hull with a flat rear section and a pointed nose section, (4) the object was drifting slowly against the wind at eight knots, and (5) there were no apparent signs of propulsion. Extensive gun-camera film was collected and a B-52 from Ramey Air Force Base locked onto the target with its radar. As soon as it did, the B-52 received electronic jamming. The object was kept under surveillance throughout the day and was lost after dark. According to the San Juan Star, most of the people of Puerto Rico saw the object that day.
1973, night. Flatwoods, Kentucky. The dispatcher for the Flatwoods police department heard a "strange buzzing sound" outside the station and went outside to investigate. "I looked up and saw a triangular-shaped object hovering over a city parking lot and standing about a foot above the roof of the station. It threw out a real bright silverish-gold glow. I walked up under this thing. I was not afraid. It shot out in a 90-degree angle." He went back inside the station and as he thought about what he had seen, a woman came into the station, crying and screaming. After she calmed down she said she had been driving on a nearby country road when her engine and lights suddenly shut off. She said a triangular-shaped object had passed over her car making buzzing noises and then disappeared up into the sky.
April 3, 1975, 1:45 a.m. until sunrise. Southeast North Carolina (MUFON). Law enforcement officers in five counties pursued a V-shaped craft with two spotlights. First seen by Lumberton police, the object was traveling 200 to 300 feet above the ground, heading north along Interstate 95. At 1:50 a.m., two St. Pauls officers saw it take off from open ground 10 miles north of Lumberton. The object darted around, making right-angle turns and accelerating rapidly. It was brilliant and silent. During the night at least 100 sightings were reported, with at least nine police officers seeing eight craft similar to the V-shaped object reported earlier. One officer said it was 40 to 50 feet long and bathed in a blue tint. Residents of one town said the object's searchlights lit up the entire town. The police chief of White Lake reported that as he was driving, the object came down and lit up the whole area like daylight. He went on about 300 yards, then stopped and got out. The light from the object was so bright he had to look away. It was V-shaped, silent and lit up an area about 500 feet on either side of the road. The chief then got a powerful light of his own from his cruiser and shined it at the object. He blinked the light and the object blinked back. Then it suddenly went straight up in the air at about 200 miles an hour and disappeared.
May 17, 1977, 3:30 a.m. Memphis, Tennessee (Pratt). Two Tactical Squad police officers in a van were driving south on an interstate highway through city when one spotted a triangular-shaped series of lights 35 to 50 feet above high tension towers just east of the expressway. Uncertain as to what it was, they turned around in the median and returned to the area but saw nothing. They drove a short distance farther north, then turned around and again headed south and this time saw the object hovering about 500 feet above a golf course on the west side of the interstate. They drove off an exit road, stopped, got out of their van and watched the object. It was triangular-shaped with white, red and green lights with a white glow around the silhouette itself. It was stationary over the golf course. The red and green lights were flashing alternately and the men could see what looked like portholes or very dim lights along the side of the object, which appeared to be metallic. One of the officers got a rifle with a telescopic sight out of the van to get a better look at the object. As soon as he shouldered the rifle, the object began moving away from them silently at a slow speed. The white and green lights went off but the glow was still visible. Then two red lights came on on the rear and the object simply disappeared across the horizon in one to two seconds. The sky was clear and visibility was good. Earlier in the evening, about 11 p.m., three other Memphis officers at a substation 15 miles northeast of the golf course saw a triangular series of lights passing over the city at a fast speed. One officer said it looked like a "flying Christmas tree." Air traffic controllers at Memphis International Airport had nothing unusual on radar during these sightings. For further details, click here.
November 22, 1977, 11:45 p.m. Plymouth, New York (midway between Utica and Binghamton) (Pratt). A farm couple had just gone to bed when they heard a loud roaring noise "like a jet plane coming right in on top of the house." The noise continued and suddenly the house started vibrating and the whole yard lit up. The farmer jumped out of bed, looked out a window and saw a huge triangular-shaped object hovering over the house and driveway, 100 to 150 feet above the ground. The noise was like that of a rocket. "You could hear the atmosphere around it cracking from the tremendous noise of this contraption," the farmer said. "It looked like a big triangular-shaped deal and the back end of it wasn't flat from point to point. It was more concave, like an arrowhead, and it looked like it had four engines in the back because you could see the orange fire that was in them." It appeared to be 75 to 80 feet wide and at least as long. There were four to six oscillating red lights. The couple's seven-year-old female German shepherd dog "just about went through conniptions when all this went on." The light from the object was so bright that the security lights in the barnyard, operated by photoelectric cells, went off. All this time the object was moving slowly, perhaps 10 to 15 miles an hour, and took 15 to 20 seconds to pass over the house and barns. It then quickly vanished over the hills at treetop level. Just a few minutes later another couple with a teenage son who live three miles away heard a loud noise that kept getting louder and louder. Then they saw "a huge object in the shape of a stingray fish, like a triangle but rounded in the front." The object lit up their front yard and the family could see "a bunch of square windows on it." It was about 50 feet off the ground. The family watched it for about five minutes before it passed out of sight. For further details, click here.
December 15, 1977, 7 to 10 p.m. Area from just southwest of Eureka Springs, Arkansas eastward through much of Carroll County (Pratt). Dozens of people, including two retired scientists and a police officer, saw a giant triangular or kite-shaped UFO move slowly eastward 25 to 30 miles across the county. About 7 p.m. a woman in Eureka Springs watched it for about 15 minutes as it approached and passed over her home. She described it as diamond-shaped with a bottom that looked like "raw wood." It had a red signal-like light in the middle and three or four smaller red lights elsewhere. The two scientists, a 73-year-old biologist and her husband, a 69-year-old nuclear chemist, saw the object about 9:25 p.m. near Beaver Lake, about five miles southwest of Eureka Springs. They were traveling home in separate vehicles about a mile apart when each saw two big bright lights passing slowly overhead toward Eureka Springs. Each stopped, got out and looked and neither heard any sound. Between 9:30 and 10, dozens of other people watched it pass over Berryville (ten miles east of Eureka Springs), going east. Most said it was diamond or kite-shaped, had three or four lights on it, sometimes pointed downward like spotlights, and was moving at a speed of 5 to 10 miles an hour. A policeman said it was triangular-shaped. He watched it with binoculars for 30 to 45 minutes from atop the highest hill in Berryville. Some people said they heard a humming sound. It was seen in Green Forest, a community seven miles southeast of Berryville, and was last seen passing over Oak Grove, nine miles northeast of Berryville, heading toward the Missouri border, about three miles beyond. For further details, click here.
February 9, 1978, 7:45 p.m. Island Lake, near South Lyon, Michigan. Several residents reported seeing a huge oval object hovering near their homes. One resident, a former Air Force aircraft mechanic, reported seeing a boomerang-shaped object the size of three 747s with a "great intensity of light coming from the center fuselage area." It was going west, flying at a low rate of speed. At least three adults and a number of children also saw the object, which made a humming noise. The slight noise confounded the ex-mechanic, who said a craft that size with conventional engines should have made enough noise to "blow out every window in the area." Police received about two dozen calls about sightings.
March 1, 1978, 9:30 to 11 p.m. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Pratt). Several hundred people saw an enormous object estimated by some to have been at least 600 feet across. None of the witnesses said the object was triangular in shape, but other characteristics of the object are remarkably similar to those associated with triangle reports. Most people saw two very bright front lights. One young couple saw the object twice. The first time, about 10 p.m., they were driving in the central part of the city when they saw a bright light in the southern sky. It kept getting bigger and brighter and they soon made out two lights slowly sweeping back and forth from left to right. It appeared to be very large. As they watched, a smaller object came from the north very fast, flashing red, white and blue lights. It passed right over their car, made a 180-degree turn in a second and headed toward the large object. Both disappeared over a hill. Intrigued, the couple drove to a reservoir in a park that is the highest point in the city, to see if they could locate the object. A minute later they saw the big one again, coming from the downtown area. It stopped almost above them, perhaps 2,000 feet in the air. They could hear a low humming noise. It appeared to be a dull gray color and had several steady white lights. The underbody seemed to consist of a steel grating and in the middle was a cylin-der or cone protruding from the base. Recessed inside this cylinder were three triangular lights with their ends butted together to form a fourth triangle. The triangular lights lit up in sequence, one after the other. After a few minutes the object started to drift away and suddenly just disappeared. The witnesses estimated the object was as big as Three Rivers Stadium (home of professional football and basball teams and since torn down), which was 200 yards in diameter. Another witness, a woman who lived about five miles to the west, also said the object was as big as the stadium. In an interesting experiment in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Center for UFO Research, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a brief report about the sightings without giving any details and said the UFO group was seeking additional information. Within 24 hours the center received more than 150 phone calls from people who had seen the object. For further details, click here.
End of December 1978, 8 p.m. Antofagasta, Chile. Three Chilean Air Force F5-Es were sent aloft to intercept a giant UFO that had been detected by radar. The object was reported to be at an altitude of about 10,000 feet over Calama in the northern part of the country. There were no clouds and the sky was semi-dark. The flight commander spotted the object and a lieutenant in another plane ten miles away confirmed the sighting. The object, which was "between round and triangular and was very bright," according to the commander, was about 50 times bigger than the F5-Es. The incident was not revealed to the public until May 29, 1979, the day a similar incident occurred (see below). The Air Force could not explain what the object was.
February 11, 1980, 10 p.m. to midnight. Argentina and Chile. Hundreds of people in more than a dozen communities in an area of Chile and western Argentina 600 miles long and 300 miles wide reported seeing a large, usually triangular object. Many sightings occurred between 10:50 and 11:10 in areas far apart, which makes one wonder if this weren't a meteor or falling space debris. However, details of individual sightings with numerous witnesses indicate otherwise. Examples: Shortly before 11 p.m., the mayor and 31 other people in Ahilinco, a small community in Neuquen Province 635 miles southwest of Buenos Aires, saw a brilliant object with a triangle of very strong light in the center. It was about 45 degrees high in the sky to the west over the Andes. The object remained motionless for three minutes, then the triangle disappeared, the lights began to gyrate, then went out and the object slowly disappeared toward the west. Residents in the nearby larger town of Chos Malal saw much the same thing. In the town of Ingeneiro Luis Huergo in Rio Negro Province (200 miles east-southeast), a 22-year-old man returning home about 10 p.m. saw a bright light about 200 meters away and 30 meters in the air. The next thing he knew it was 11 p.m., an hour later, and he was in his car 18 kilometers farther away near the town of Cervantes. The light was still in front of and above his car, which wouldn't start. He walked into town but when he returned with a policeman the object had gone. He described it as "a kind of big L. Where the two 'legs' of the L join was a kind of star. Inside the 'L' was a square and within the square a smaller one, a kind of TV screen." A mailman who lives two kilometers southeast of Cervantes said that at 10:55 p.m. he and four or five neighbors saw a large ball of light with a beam of light shining down. After three or four minutes it flew off at great speed to the north. Between 10:45 and 11 p.m., numerous people in Chepes, Barrealito, Tamberies and Chamical in San Juan Province, 600 miles to the north-northwest, saw a large triangular object with a "blue luminosity with a reddish hue" moving at great speed. Around 11 p.m. in Santiago, Chile (about 130 miles south), many people including military and police personnel saw an immense ball of light with two beams of light shining out. After ten minutes, it began to wobble and then disappeared at "an incredible speed." Around 11:30 p.m. near El Medano in Catamarca Province, Argentina (400 miles northwest of Santiago), a doctor, his wife and three children saw an enormous ball of intense orange light with three beams of light, one to the left, one to the right and one down to the ground. They saw five other people also watching it. After several minutes, it shot off across the horizon at great speed. At 11:45 p.m. in San Vicente in neighboring Santiago del Estero Province (about 100 miles northeast of El Medano), witnesses saw a triangular object that gave off intermittent green, red and yellow lights that shined down to the ground. It remained motionless for five minutes and then disappeared at great speed. Shortly before midnight, an unidentified object passed over the Pacific coast towns of Penco and Lirquen in Chile (just north of Concepcion and nearly 300 miles south of Santiago), and then landed in the waters of the bay. It floated for about ten minutes, shining searchlights that lit the whole bay, and then suddenly ascended and disappeared over the mountains to the east, leaving behind a trail of smoke that hung in the air for about two hours.
November 18, 1980, throughout the evening. About a dozen communities in northern-central Missouri, the largest of which are the small cities of Trenton and Kirksville (Pratt). Hundreds of people reported seeing a large triangular-shaped object move slowly back and forth several times over an area at least 100 miles wide for four to five hours. It was once spotted on radar and seen visually at the same time by a maintenance technician at an unmanned radar station north of Kirksville. It went through his area four or five times, he said, and he once tracked its speed at 45 miles an hour. He went outside to look at it twice. It was about six miles away and all he could see were lights. A number of people said it hovered overhead. Often two big bright lights like headlights were seen. Many said it was as big as a football field. One university student took a photo as it tipped on its side, showing a row of lights (they looked greenish, he said) like windows around a domed area on top. A teacher in Trenton said he could see white lights that looked like cockpit or cabin lights on the front of the object. A number of police officers saw it. One of them, a veteran highway patrolman, saw it hovering about six miles west of Trenton. He drove for about five minutes until he got underneath it, and saw it sitting silently 1,500 to 1,800 feet above him. After 30 seconds or so, it suddenly moved back east without turning around, making a low jet-engine sound as it moved away. It went out of sight in about 40 seconds. Near Kirksville, 60 miles east of Trenton, a sheriff's deputy who was also a pilot and another deputy saw the object suddenly go back in the opposite direction without banking or turning around. A farm woman saw a big bright light in a field on an adjoining farm, sent her son and husband to check it out and while they were gone she saw the white light suddenly turn very dark orange. She said it was "almost round but the right side was sort of cut off." Another farmer some distance away saw the object twice during the evening. The first time it went over his house at about 300 to 400 feet altitude. It had seven lights underneath and two big headlights on the front. It was triangular, moved at about 40 miles an hour and made a low rumbling sound. An aerial-refueling operation took place in this area at one point during the evening, and may account for some sightings. However, nearly all witnesses said they had seen refueling flights before and were emphatic about this not being a plane. In addition, a number of witnesses said they could see jets in the sky at the same time, although not in connection with the object. For further details, click here.
February 22, 1981, 10 to 10:30 p.m. La Vernia, Texas (20 miles east of San Antonio). At least 30 residents reported seeing a triangular object hovering in the area at the same time that TV sets and telephones were disrupted and a false fire alarm was set off. The object had two white lights at the front and a red light at the rear. The lights went up "real high" and came back down again. A "low whooshing" sound could be heard. A smell of burning tar or insulation wiring hung in the area but no fire could be found. One witness saw what appeared to be "the body of a large aircraft" with two bright lights and a red light. It was barely moving. Three men hunting raccoons had just released their dogs when they saw the object moving toward them. They saw two lights like streetlights, bright but not blinding, just glowing. When the object passed overhead, it appeared to be the size of "an eight‑room house" and made a humming sound. One of the men flashed an SOS signal with his flashlight but the object did not respond. Earlier, an Air Force mechanic reported seeing two "saucers" following a plane toward San Antonio and thought the plane was towing them. Then suddenly the objects passed the plane.
April 15, 1981, 7:35 p.m. Mount Sunapee, New Hampshire. A man driving in the area of Mount Sunapee saw a huge triangular object with red lights. It first appeared as "two huge, bright stars" to the east and was stationary. Then "one of the stars seemed to fall several miles straight down" and began moving westward. As it approached, the object took on the appearance of a huge metal triangle with several red lights on the side and a very bright, high-intensity white light on the leading edge. The object looked similar to "five B-52s in a low-altitude flight, flying in a staggered V formation." The object flew "very low, lower than the hills," and passed over the manís car going west.
April 15, 1981, about 7:45 p.m. Windsor, Vermont (about 27 miles west-northwest of Mount Sunapee, New Hampshire). Two employees of public radio station outside on a coffee break saw an object described as "V-shaped with a big white light in front." The object was said to have "definite dimensions and red side lights." Lights illuminated grid work underneath. It was moving very slowly. A heavy hum was heard.
September 28, 1981, 8 p.m. Rural area near Bancroft, Michigan (MUFON). A widow saw lights in a field near her home and thought they were National Guard helicopters. She phoned her son, who lives nearby, and asked him to take a look. Shortly thereafter he, his wife and her nephew went outside and saw three or four lights moving erratically with both horizontal and vertical darting motions. The lights then moved into a formation of sorts about 150 yards from their driveway. One light descended vertically and rose to its original position in the span of a second. Then out of the east came two more objects, and from the southwest one or two more. Soon after their arrival, one light moved considerably closer to the witnesses. Its surface was a dull gray and it hovered about 75 yards away, and then dipped its forward section toward them. It was sort of bat-like in shape with drooped wings. On each wingtip was a steady red light, while a piercing white flashing strobe light was on the underside. At the same time, the husband was watching another object that slowly glided into what he described as a "45-degree angle of attack." It then veered off to the southwest revealing its underside as a round-edged triangle or arrowhead shape. He then went inside to rest a leg he had injured some weeks earlier. The nephew had walked to the end of the driveway 60 feet away, and the wife walked out to join him. From there they watched a "room‑sized" irregular ball of brilliant light about 500 yards away. The nephew went inside to get rifle telescopes. The light was too bright and hurt their eyes. They soon spotted eight or ten more lights in a grouping in the sky. As the two of them looked up, they saw a triangular object pass over the house at a height of a few hundred feet. Through the telescopes they could see a gray undersurface. At each of its rounded corners was a depression or hole, surrounded by a ring or groove. Outside of these at the edge were blue flashing lights in the right and left rear and a red light on the front. Centered on its underside was a flashing white strobe light. Extending from the central light toward each ring was a bar-like attachment. The three outer lights were flashing in this sequence: Front, right rear, left rear, center. As the object passed over, they could hear a "swooshing" sound. They estimated its size as perhaps 25 to 35 feet long and 15 to 25 feet across. In the meantime, the husband had called some friends and four other adults soon joined them. Between 8 and 10:30 p.m. the group watched similar activity. The lights gradually dispersed by 10:30. On October 2, the wife saw a V-shaped object, and on October 12 saw a reddish-orange circular object, which was soon joined by a second object that appeared as a triangular pattern of lights.
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