Sighting
of a Triangular Object at Close Proximity
Filed
with MUFON by Craig R. Lang, MS CHt
Type
of Report: Flyover of Triangular Object at Close Proximity
Date
of Report:
Worldwide
UFO Database Entry# 1-851-MN
Investigator: Craig R. Lang, Field Investigator, MN MUFON
Date
of Sighting: October 2000 –exact date not known – estimated time 10:30 PM CDT
(Note: since time change is during
October, it is not clear whether time is CDT or CST)
Place
of Sighting:
Local
Evaluation: CE1 - Unexplained
Sighting
Background
I
was contacted by the witness at the close of the Minnesota MUFON meeting in
December 2001, regarding this sighting.
I interviewed her in January of 2002.
Witness
Description
The
witness is a 79 year old female. She is
a homemaker and retired bank and mortgage clerk. She indicates that her health and hearing are
OK and her vision is correctable to 20/20 using eyeglasses, which she was
wearing at the time of the sighting. She
describes her education level as a partial college education. She has extensively followed the UFO
phenomenon in the last few years and indicates that she may have had a number
of psychic and UFOlogical experiences.
Sighting
Account
The
witness was doing some quick household chores on the main floor of her house at
about 10:30 PM. She was momentarily
standing on her back porch, which is one floor above ground level, facing
southeast. She indicates that she often
observes the sky, and at this moment, she looked up and observed a large
triangular object nearly due south in the sky at an elevation of about 50
degrees or higher.
The
object moved out of her view so she ran into her living room, which has a south
facing window, and attempted to look up at the object. She was unable to see it due to the overhang
of the roof. She thus lost sight of the
object at that point.
She
felt that the total sighting time was under two minutes [CL Estimate: probably
less than one minute].
Object
Description:
She
describes the object as being about six times larger than an aircraft would appear
at that location. It moved slowly and
silently in an east to west path. She
did not know the elevation, and thus could not estimate its size, however, its
angular size was larger than that of a garage about ½ blocks away from where
she stood [CL estimate, angular size would have been at least that of hand at
arms length].
Figure
1: Witness sketch of
object [CL Annotation]
The
object was described as having at least three non-blinking blue lights on each “wing”
and one at the apex. The color was
described as dark, but not absolute black.
The motion of the object was slow, smooth and silent.
Additional
Witnesses:
None
are known. However, the proximity of the
witness’ location to two major freeways (US Hwy 169 less than 3 miles to the
east, and I494 to the west) is very noteworthy.
It is possible that a significant number of commuters on these highways
could have seen this object.
Weather
Conditions:
Witness
describes weather as clear and cool.
Detailed
weather conditions are not available due to the uncertainty regarding the date.
Natural
and Manmade Phenomena Check:
Null
hypothesis: Aircraft at unusually low elevation.
The configuration and blue lighting are not
consistent with known aircraft. The
witness also describes the motion as being much slower than an aircraft. In addition, any aircraft low enough to have
that large an apparent size would have been clearly audible.
Additional
Note:
The
description of this object is similar to that of several other “triangle” and
“boomerang” shaped objects observed in the last several years in the Twin
Cities Metropolitan area. Consistent
themes of these reports are the large size of the object, its slow, smooth movement,
and its low altitude.
Sighting
Evaluation:
CE1,
unexplained
