Closed triangle UFO cases: January 2012 yields 22 reports

The triangle remains a top three UFO shape for 2012 with 685 reports filed through December 15, 2012, with the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.

The number of actual UFOs will be lower eventually as MUFON completes investigations and rules out Mother Nature and anything man made. Looking back at 2012 with just 16 days left in the year, MUFON is reporting that 157 of those 685 reports are now closed cases with a final determination as Unknown. As all cases close out by the end of the first quarter 2013, researchers can then begin the task of sifting through the year’s Unknown cases for further study.

While many other reports have closed out — 489 of the 685 are closed — those cases closed as an Unknown will be the most interesting triangle cases for further study.

The National UFO Examiner will be reviewing all Unknown closed cases once investigators complete their work. Today we review 22 triangle cases from 13 states closed as Unknowns from January 2012. The witness statements here are edited testimony. You may view the complete and unedited testimony using the case links provided. Further 2012 updates will include a link to each month’s overview of closed Unknown cases and a general 2012 concluding triangle feature will be posted when appropriate in early 2013.

Many of the January cases you are about to read — 14 of the 22 cases are east coast states — include testimony where the object was close enough to the witness to warrant a very good description. Investigators continue to try and weed out objects that may be U.S. military aircraft in a secret, testing phase, although many wonder why testing would be conducted over the areas where witnesses were watching — and often with the object so close to ground level.

January 1, 2012, 2:35 a.m., Evansville, Vanderburgh County, IN. Case 34466. «At first I thought it was an airplane as it approached,» the witness stated. «It gently turned to about 30-degrees. At this point it was very close to me. It really caught me off guard. This baby was big and it seemed to just glide. The super bright light rods on the craft — I counted six — were brilliant and illuminated in a distinct pattern as it banked and changed directions. No more than a couple hundred feet off of the ground. Less than a couple of hundred yards right in front of me. I could see it plain as day. This object had some serious mass to it. It made no sound and had no visible emissions trail. It flew low and stayed low. What blew my mind is as it faded out of sight, it stopped, did a quick daddle, and disappeared in the distance toward Mt. Vernon, Indiana.»

Janauary 3, 2012, 6:22 a.m., Jacksonboro, Colleton County, TN. Case 34696. «Seen three lights in a kind of a triangle position in the sky,» the witness stated. «Two moved side-by-side, parallel to each other. Then the third disappeared. The two that moved, moved across the sky, then stopped, then stayed there until dawn. While the two were moving, one flew above them, away from them, and the other was heading toward them at a high rate.»

January 3, 2012, 8:40 p.m., Bryn Athyn, Montgomery, PA. Case 34591. «It was a clear night and what I saw was a triangular-shaped craft with a red and green light in the front center of the craft,» the witness stated. «Also were two sets of bright, white lights on what appeared to be its wings. It was about 500 yards directly above me. It sounded like a low engine noise and was flying at about 50 mph.»

January 3, 2012, 10 p.m., Frankfort, Clinton County, IN. Case 35089. «I noticed a bright light that looked like it was gliding but had no sound,» the witness stated. «It stopped in mid air for maybe two minutes and continued in a straight path heading northeast. The object was shaped like a triangle with three lights — one at each corner. It was a clear night and it wasn’t flying very high at all, but yet it was completely silent.»

January 5, 2012, 4:50 a.m., Norwich, Orange County, VT. Case 34712. «While traveling south in the slow lane on Interstae 91 at 4:50 a.m. on Tuesday, January 5th, I looked in my driver’s side mirror and noticed a black triangular object with large, yellow lights approximately 50 feet above and directly over the roof of a car, about 300-500 feet in the fast lane,» the witness stated. «After about five seconds I refocused my driving to the road in front of me as I was headed towards the breakdown lane.I maneuvered my vehicle back into the slow lane and once again looked into the driver’s side mirror and the object was gone. The vehicle behind me in the fast lane was still proceeding south behind me. The entire event lasted about 10 seconds. As I proceeded south as I looked through my driver’s side window and passenger side window into the sky looking for the object, it didn’t reappear! After I proceeded approximately a mile south on the interstate I saw what looked like a red shooting star with a streak in the sky directly in front of me lasting about two seconds.»

January 5, 2012, 8:10 p.m., Bolton, Tolland County, CT. Case 34640. «Driving on Route 85 eastbound towards my home when I saw a three-light, tipped triangle cross the road over the tree tops,» the witness stated. «I was on the phone with my mother at the time, and stated that I saw some weird lights. It was enormous, easily larger than a commercial, large passenger aircraft if it was within 100 feet of the tree tops. There were no visible lights other than the three bright, white exterior lights on each of the three tips of the triangle. You could not see through the object, and the sky was clear. As soon as the first triangle was out of sight, not more than two seconds behind it, I saw a second, identical triangle pass along the same path. If I was eastbound on 85, both passed me going left to right.»

January 5, 2012, 11:45 p.m., Pooler, Chatham County, GA. Case 34658. «I saw three bright, white lights forming a perfect triangle with a dull red pulsating light in the center of the object,» the witness stated. «I got very excited, and had the mind set to grab my camera which has a video recorder, opened my back door and started shooting the video. It made no noise and moved very slowly across the sky along the tree line. The triangle object started to turn on a yaw axis, and continued to rotate counter clockwise, which showed multiple lights. It was very dark in color, such as black. It vanished in a split second.»

January 8, 2012, 10:30 p.m., Moretown, Washington County, VT. Case 34732. «When I got into Moretown I could tell that the object was moving very slowly through the sky, only about 300 feet above the ground,» the witness stated. «I started driving up the hill to my home and when I got to the top and the view wasn’t obscured by trees, I pulled over and opened my window. The object was flying very low yet I could not hear any noise. The shape was almost diamond-like or trapezoidal. It almost looked like two helicopters were flying one in front of the other, really close, but I would have been able to hear them so close to the ground. It was a big, dark object, but it had several yellow lights underneath and also a red light. It kept flying and eventually flew over the area of my car. Soon I lost sight of it over the trees.»

January 10, 2012, 6:53 p.m., Jonesville, Lee County, VA. Case 34812. «The object was a black, slender triangular prism with two pulsating orb lights on the exterior, and one sunburst orange/red fixed in the center,» the witness stated. «It was moving slowly to be at an altitude estimated at 5,000 to 15,000 and it was completely silent. Its duration of flight above me lasted at least 5-7 minutes. long enough to smoke a Marlboro: Virginia Blend 100.» See main story illustration from this case.

January 10, 2012, 7:50 p.m., Seattle, King County, WA. Case 34796. «I witnessed three lights in the shape of a triangle flying in a straight path from east to west,» the witness stated. «I live right in the path of Sea-Tac Airport, so I am well familiar with planes of all types flying overhead at all altitudes. This was definitely not a plane. I was unable to determine whether it was one triangular-shaped object with lights on all three points, or three smaller objects flying in that formation. I will say, however, that right as it was leaving my field of vision it appeared one of them was separating from the other two. There was no noise whatsoever.»

January 11, 2012, 7:28 p.m., Bellingham, Whatcom County, WA. Case 34810. «On the top of the mountain just at the tree line were three balls of light, clearly larger than any star,» the witness stated. «Being a helicopter pilot, and knowing the specific routes flying over my house I knew these lights were not a plane. Also I know for a fact there is no tower or structure that would be on top of the mountain there. The lights were in a triangle formation for about a minute or two. Then they slowly formed a straight line with a little space in between the three. Blinked three times, or pulsated three times, and disappeared.»

January 14, 2012, 6:22 p.m., Fort Mill, Abbeville County, SC. Case 34874. «Went outside around 6:20 and saw three orange spheres moving rapidly up from the northwest toward Charlotte,» the witness stated. «I am in Fort Mill (Foxwood Subdivision). They formed up a triangle, hanging motionless. Then two of the orange lights appeared to merge into one and then slowly vanished. My neighbor and my wife both saw this. My neighbor stood outside watching as two more orange orbs moved upward and hung motionless in the same area as the other three had been. These were brighter, more orb-like. They hung there motionless. Sometimes they looked like they were dancing around each other until they vanished. Two more, much brighter and more spherical rose up from the same direction. They were much brighter than the previous five that I had seen. My neighbor and I continued to watch. These too slowly faded out, to a low magnitude star-like appearance, then disappeared.»

January 17, 2012, 6:45 p.m., Southampton, Burlington County, NJ. Case 35102. From the case field investigator: «On the night of the sighting the witness was going to the memorial hall and realized he left some photos at home. He left his wife off at the hall and drove home to pick up the photos. After getting the photos and heading back to the hall after driving two blocks he noticed three lights in the sky and took a photo of them. Within seconds of taking the photo the object (the witness now realized the three lights were one object) came within 20 feet of him.The object was there 3-4 minutes while the witness got out of the car and was in the street watching it. The craft then moved and the witness drove back to the memorial hall and saw the craft come over the parking lot there for about 6 minutes. The witness took numerous photos but only the first one, which was the furthest in distance came out. The witness also said his watch stopped working for a day.»

January 19, 2012, 7:30 p.m., Statesville, Iredell County, NC. Case 35144. «It was above tree top level and way above the houses in our subdivision,» the witness stated. «It appeared to hover and made no major noise, just a low hum. It was in the shape of a triangle. As it came closer, the body of the craft appeared to be very dark, almost transparent. It had a bright red blinking light on the bottom of the craft. It had three white lights on each end. That is how we made it out to be a triangle and while lights on each tip. It had a dark shadow also like something was there. It looked like an invisible triangle with a red blinking light on the bottom. It appeared to be in a turn as it seemed to notice us. It turned around and moved over toward us. It was still low but over tree top level. It was pretty big. As the object did a complete circle around our area of the neighborhood we noticed an identical craft descend out of the sky. It seemed to have come from nowhere. It was flying and descending from a higher altitude from the southwest going north toward the first craft we saw. We became very scared at this point. We were frightened by the first, but became very scared when we saw the second craft. I thought there may be some type of invasion honestly. We ran back toward the house until the second craft passed on. The craft met up with the other craft and they began to fly off in a straight path toward Highway 40 which is in view from our house. They did not change directions anymore. I watched them for 10-15 minutes. They flew over Highway 40 toward the north. They flew over a few manufacturing buildings that are in view across the interstate. I watched them until all I could see were the red blinking dome lights on them. They eventually faded out of view as they flew further on. Those red blinking lights were so bright they could be seen for over a mile away.»

January 24, 2012, 5:35 a.m., Ozona, Crockett County, TX. Case 35117. «I just looked up, and there it was moving less than 5 mph in an easterly direction,» the witness stated. «It was completely silent, and it was as big as a football field. I could tell how big it was because it was a clear morning and the stars were shining and as I looked up I couldn’t see the stars, I could only see them further over past the outline of this triangle-shaped ship. It was only about 500 feet above me as I watched it in awe as it moved slowly east, then in an instant it streaked across the sky so fast that I couldn’t hardly follow it with my eyes. Afterwords I felt like I had worked a whole day, my adrenaline must have been pumping hard while I was looking at this thing. It only lasted a few seconds but seemed like longer. It was like everything was in slow motion while I was walking and looking up and then all of a sudden it just picked up speed and streaked away towards the northeast.»

January 24, 2012, 6:20 p.m., Winnetka, Los Angeles County, CA. Case 35145. «Over 25 triangular UFOs stationary in the sky with white glowing light,» the witness stated. At lower level elevations spinning and changing colors as they spun from glowing white to yelowish-orange, and then it disappeared, then reappeared while spinning, moving rapidly across the sky in a straigh line. Lights on the exterior line of triangular shape. Inside, no lights, clear.»

January 24, 2012, 7:05 p.m., North Myrtle Beach, Horry County, SC. Case 35252. «I saw about 10 spheres moving erratically with flashing white lights,» the witness stated. «These lights moved in all directions including around each other. The night sky was so clear it was only the second time I was able to see the Milky Way with bare eyes. Two minutes after going outside my wife joined me outside and to our south she pointed out a large, triangle-shaped object with three lights on each tip. The object was only a quarter mile above the ground and it was traveling very slowly and noiseless. We watched this triangle continue its path due west and after five minutes or more, just as it was almost out of sight, it began returning in our direction and passed by my house again now to my north. Watching it for a total of 15 minutes.»

January 24, 2012, 9 p.m., Newtown, Bucks County, PA. Case 35119. «It was about 300 — 500 feet it the sky, no more than one-half mile away,» the witness stated. «Within the three lights there seemed to be interior lights within the structure. I have never seen anything like it. I came to a stop light and rolled down my window as it was passing to take a listen to it. It was not a jet or a helicopter. It sounded like an electronic humming fan or turbine blades. I was on an aircraft carrier for five years. No plane I have ever heard.»

January 25, 2012, 9:15 p.m., Antioch, Contra Costa County, CA. Case 35257. «Saw a triangular shape in the western sky,» the witness stated. «Just the color got my attention — yellowish-gold fire. The UFO was flying very slow. Flew right over me.»

January 26, 2012, 10:15 p.m., Beamont, Jefferson County, TX. Case 39421. «I realized that it didn’t have the same type of lights as an airplane does,» the witness stated. «The lights were white, unlike airplane lights that are green, red, and white, and they were flashing in sequence. There was no noise such as you hear when a jet flies overhead. The object was silent or nearly silent. The object appeared to be triangular, but it was very hard to tell, since it was dark outside at the time. I didn’t see any real outline of the object, again probably because it was so dark. It took a straight path over my head and over the restaurant.»

January 27, 2012, 5:08 p.m., Minotola, Atlantic County, NJ. Case 35581. «I could not see the jet yet but could hear it, and as I was looking in the sky for the jet I noticed a bright white light moving to the southeast of my position,» the witness stated. «The light was as bright as the sun but very small, silent and about three to five miles from my position. It was moving from clear blue sky towards clouds to the south. I was facing east at the time. I ran to get my camera and just caught it before it moved into the clouds fully. I tried to set up a second shot but it was too late as the object moved into the thick of the clouds. Other than the clouds to the south the sky was completely clear bright and sunny. I then looked at the picture and barely saw the object on the LCD screen, but when I zoomed into the object it was very different from what I expected to see. I expected to see a plane and not the object that I was looking at. It also seemed to have three points of light and not just one as I observed.»

January 31, 2012, 7:22 p.m., Auburn, Placer County, CA. Case 35378. «I was driving home from school listening to the radio when I noticed an unusually bright and slow, low flying object coming toward my direction with a rough altitude approximately 500 ft AGL,» the witness stated. «The closer the object got to my car, I noticed a disruption in my radio station in an area with no past radio interference occurring. I pulled over to see it for as long as possible. When I exited my vehicle I noticed that the object has no sounds reverberating from it. The path of the object laid just northwest of a prominent airspace traffic area of which I witnessed a commercial airliner flying in during the observation. After watching the object for several minutes, it slowly disappeared behind trees going toward what I saw was Beale AFB.»