Close Sighting of Large Triangular Object
The witnesses were driving East on Rt. 96 near the intersection with highway 5 in a rural area 1 to 2 miles North of Stillwater, MN, 22 miles East of St. Paul.The landscape is gently rolling, comprised of crop fields and wooded areas. It was nearly dark, but some light remained in the sky, which was clear.
Witness 1:
Sitting on the passenger side of the car the witnesses were traveling in, witness 1 noticed a lit, triangular object to his right.
The object appeared to be about 250' on a side. The witness reported the triangle was equilateral, though his drawing shows it as isosceles. It was not possible to discern a texture to the surface of the object.
A bright white light was at each apex of the triangle underneath the craft. The lights were not bright enough to illuminate the ground beneath the craft.
There was also a red light in the center of the bottom of the triangle, less bright than the white lights, which blinked about once per second.
There were no other lights on the object and no windows, orifices or other surface features were visible.
The color of the object was black, but not the same color as the stealth aircraft.
The object produced no sound, although the witness did not get out of the car. No other witnesses are known to have observed the object.
The nearest surface of the object was approximately at a 60° angle from the ground when the craft was at its lowest altitude.
When first seen the object was about 400' above ground but moved down quite rapidly to about 150' and hovered for several seconds, then rose up to about 400'.
There was no apparent lateral motion of the object. The car was moving about 45 mph but slowed to 10 to 15 mph immediately upon sighting of the object.
The object was last seen to the rear of the car and disappeared when the car got too far away for the witness to see it. The duration of the sighting was about 1 minute. Witness 2, the driver, did not see the object because she was concentrating on driving.
When he came home the witness made drawing of the object which looked substantially the same as the drawing he made during the investigation. The original drawing was lost. After the sighting, he read some UFO literature, including accounts of the triangular objects seen in Belgium in the early 90s.
The object described is similar to the description of many triangular objects seen worldwide for the past 20 years. There is no conventional explanation apart from the possibility that the craft was an advanced military aircraft.
However, current known technology is not consistent with a craft capable of hovering and moving rapidly vertically upward and downward without engine noise.
Witness 2:
This witness observed 2 white lights, separated by the width of her thumb at arms length directly in front of her, toward the East. The lights were estimated to be 15 miles away, though she emphasized the uncertainty of this estimate, and were seen at the same time as witness 1 observed the triangular object to his right. Witness 1 also observed the 2 lights, but not closely, since he was occupied with observing the triangular object to his right.
Witness 2 estimated the size of the lights to be about ⅛ the diameter of the moon and the brightness as brighter than a streetlight. Based on the inverse square law, this would mean the lights were more than 225 times the intrinsic brightness of a streetlight.
As far as she could tell the object was not illuminating the ground. No other witnesses are known to have observed the lights.
Witness 2 estimated that the object was about 20° above the ground. This would make the altitude of the lights about 6 miles, 31,000'. The lights appeared motionless for about 1 minute, then moved downward rapidly until they disappeared below the tree lined horizon about 3 seconds after they began their descent.
The calculated speed of movement was 7,200 mph. The lights disappeared at about the same time as witness 1 lost sight of the triangular object. The witnesses observed airplanes in the vicinity but witness 2 was adamant that the lights she saw were not conventional aircraft.
The nearest airport is 9 miles to the southwest, 135° to the right of, behind, the direction where the objects were sighted. There are no airports within at least 40 miles to the East of the sighting location.
During the time the 2 lights were hovering, they emitted 2 smaller lights which circled downward and back up and joined with the primary light a few seconds after they appeared. The witness had no estimate of the speed of these lights and said they were not quite as bright as the primary lights.
Probably conventional aircraft. If the object size was ⅛ the apparent diameter of the moon and 15 miles away, it would have been a very large object. At 225 times the brightness of a streetlight, it would also have been exceedingly bright.
The downward speed of 7,200 mph is also extraordinary. The lack of other witnesses or press coverage of such a remarkable object as well as the inexperience of the witness and the well known difficulty in judging distances of lights in the sky causes the investigator to believe that the lights were probably much closer than estimated and thus much smaller and less bright.
Despite the lack of an airport in the direction of the sighting, the presence of a major airport, MSP, 30 miles west of the sighting causes the investigator to believe that the lights could very possibly have been attached to aircraft. However, there is not enough information to make an unambiguous judgment.
It was clear, light wind, temperature near 40° F.