The Infamous ‘Black Triangles’ article by Steve Nance on MAAR

Much has been said lately about the increasing worldwide sightings and reports of large black triangular shaped craft (objects) drifting leisurely through the night skies above. These primarily nocturnal and dark delta-winged objects were first reported in some mass fifteen years ago or so and have appeared in intermittent ‘flaps’ (waves) that have been occurring around the globe ever since.

In 1988 these objects were seen floating over military installations, towns and villages in Belgium. They were multi-witnessed by hundreds of people and chased by ground pursuing law enforcement agents and military personnel, who photographed them as well. The Belgium Air Defense Ministry became so concerned that it alerted and scrambled several Belgium Air Force F-16 fighters to intercept a duo of these bizarre and elusive craft, after they had silently flown over ANS Air Base and were seen cavorting around willy-nilly throughout Belgium airspace. Once the interceptor jets were airborne, it was an easy task for the Belgium ATC to guide the dispatched fighters on to an intercept course with the unknowns … because they were being tracked as brightly painted green blips on their radar screens.

Once in the approximate vicinity, the Belgium fighter pilots were able to get a visual sighting of the ‘boogies’ and to obtain a solid radar-lock on for the jet fighter’s weapons and targeting control systems. One of the Belgium F-16 pilots radioed to his base that he had ‘target acquisition’. He was then immediately ordered by his commanding officers, which were tracking and monitoring this event from the base, to fire an air-to-air missile at the ‘locked on target’. But much to the pilot’s dismay, when he pickled the missile launch button the missile did not fire and refused to budge from its weapon’s pylon.

(NOTE: Later, after the aircraft had landed, an investigative inspection of the misfired radar guided missile showed that it had indeed been properly mated manually to the aircraft’s launch pylon and correctly connected electronically in order for the missile to arm, launch and fire; and that the aircraft’s missile locking and release mechanisms were also functioning properly. The overall conclusion was that the missile should have performed normally and within the specifications of the weapon’s manufacturer.)

Two of the pursuing F-16s mysteriously experienced simultaneous and sudden power losses in their engines when attempting to chase and close in on these fleeing objects. Then, just as mysteriously, the engines once again regained their power back as the objects got further out and away from the pursuing aircraft’s weapons range. (A subsequent investigation also concluded that these engines were operating within specs and that the reason for the partial and simultaneous engine failures were deemed unexplainable and inconclusive.)

The black triangular objects that appeared over Phoenix, Arizona and nearby surrounding communities in 1997 (i.e. ‘The Phoenix Lights’) have returned to that area and are currently being reported by witnesses and observers throughout that part of the State. Not a true triangular configuration, these objects were more chevron or ‘flying wing’ shaped.


Three artist rendered drawings of the craft seen over Phoenix and surrounding communities that were drawn from eye witnessed descriptions and reports


Four actual photos of the ‘Phoenix Lights’. Notice that even though these photographs are of the same object, seen at various geographic locations throughout parts of central and northwestern Arizona, the object’s lighting arrangement appears to change as the craft moved along through the sky.

Just a few years ago there were many eyewitness accounts of large and slow moving flying black triangular objects in the night skies over upstate New York. These objects were seen flying over busy highways and many motorists traveling on these highways actually stopped along side the road and stepped out of their cars to watch the objects float lazily overhead and continue off towards the horizon, where they would be lost from view. After an alleged investigation into these strange objects it was officially determined by New York State Police that these objects were nothing more than ‘ultra-light aircraft’ with lights attached to them and the whole thing was promptly dismissed as nothing more than an ‘elaborate hoax’. The citizens who witnessed and reported these objects (many of whom were professionals and considered to be credible and reliable sources) were completely outraged at this explanation.

One eye witness, a retired commercial airline pilot, stated to the news media that: “You’d think that I should be able to differentiate between an ultra-light aircraft being flown at low altitude in total darkness and an eerily lit object as large as a football field gliding silently across the sky. For one thing, the ultra-light airplane needs engines to stay aloft and these objects made no sounds whatsoever.”

I have personally seen one of these strange objects that was multi-witnessed at fairly short range one evening in 1982 while driving to the grocery store. As I was driving along, with my driver’s window down, my left eye caught something out of its peripheral vision. There was a car directly in front of me that was slowing down with its left turn indicator blinking. I slowed down behind the turning car, came to a rolling stop and then quickly turned my head to the left to see a large black triangular shaped craft gliding smoothly and silently through the air beneath the low and drizzly cloud cover; its dark shape silhouetted against the light-gray overcast. The solidly overcast ceiling was approximately 1800 to 2000 feet in altitude. The object was several hundred feet below the cloud cover ceiling and I estimated its altitude to be between 1000 to 1200 feet.

Artist rendering of ‘Black Triangle’ sighted over Merriam Kansas in 1982 and multi-witnessed by many local citizens

The dark triangle passed silently over a large retail outlet store and parking lot. It was larger than both combined. Using these estimated measurements I quickly calculated in my mind that this object had to be approximately 350 to 400 yards wide (from wingtip-to-wingtip if you will) and 300 to 350 foot in length (from nose-to-aft trailing edge). I also knew that if these hasty mental calculations were even close to being correct, then the craft had to be traveling at between 130 and 150 knots. I was not able to notice any discernable thickness to the craft, as I was only able to observe the underside (belly) and bottom edges of it.




Photos of the late 1940s experimental Northrop XB-49 flying wing jet bomber. Note the insert photo of a B-2 Stealth flying wing bomber in the photo on the left to show that it and it’s XB-49 predecessor are configured in a very similar manner

Being an aircraft enthusiast and pilot myself, this object immediately brought to mind the experimental Northrop XB-49 flying-wing bomber that had been developed and test flown in the post war era of the late 1940s. However, that experimental airplane’s wing design was more in the shape of an elongated chevron and was proportionately much wider and shorter in length than the object I was seeing. This object was for all intent and purpose shaped exactly like an isosceles triangle, with the two equal sides comprising the front left and right leading edges of the craft and the remaining shorter side being it’s aft-end or trailing edge. Seven bright green lights adorned its leading edge and shown forward, their light-beams becoming visible in the air ahead of the object as they cut through the thick and humid atmosphere.

I had slowed my car down considerably at this point and I quickly looked down the road again to check for traffic. The car in front of me had already made its turn onto an Interstate on-ramp, when it suddenly slammed on its brakes and came to a screeching halt in the middle of the road. I observed the driver leaning forward, craning his neck and looking up at the sky through his car’s windshield. His mouth was wide open and I assumed that he was now getting his first look at a windshield full of this bizarre object. I looked back to the road ahead and glanced in the rear-view mirror for traffic behind me.

There were no immediate traffic threats, so I jerked my head back to the left to see where the object had gone and it was not in the quadrant of the sky that I imagined it should have been in. I stuck my head out the open window and frantically looked around the sky to relocate the object, but it wasn’t in any quadrant of the sky and had totally vanished. I heard squealing tires on pavement and glanced to my left to see the motorist who had stopped his car now quickly speeding away. Then I experienced a very short and strange tingling sensation run through my body and I physically shuddered. This may have been due to the total awesomeness of what I had just glimpsed.

I got my attention back into the traffic and the road and continued on. Thirty seconds and a block later, I turned into the strip shopping mall and parked in front of the grocery store. I got out of my car and walked a few feet when I noticed a group of people standing out in the store parking lot. They were stopped and standing there behind grocery carts and pointing up to the sky, the same part of the sky where I had just seen the mysterious object. I went over to this group of three men and a woman and asked them point blank if they had seen the object in the sky. They all immediately replied yes. A Hispanic man in the group then said that they were just talking about it.

The woman then said that, “it looked like a huge triangle with green lights on it”.

A couple of the other people standing there nodded their heads in confirmation and one of them said, “the object had seven lights across the front of it”.

I then asked them where the object went and told them that I was busy in traffic and had lost sight of the craft and wasn’t able to relocate it in the sky to watch all of the object’s flight-path.

The Hispanic gentleman then said that the object: “just simply disappeared”. “Right about there”, he continued, as he pointed his finger in the same general area of the sky where I had last seen the craft.

“Some other folks were watching it too”, said one of the other men, “but they left”.

At about that time it began raining and everyone disbursed and either ran inside the store or got into their cars to leave. I was pumped up. I just assumed that with the number of people who I personally knew had witnessed this event (and no telling how many others had observed it as well) that there would be all kinds of media coverage and discussion about it. So, I finished my shopping and rushed home to watch the evening Television news. Nothing was said regarding this sighting. I listened to talk radio station later that evening that was known for it’s local news coverage. Still nothing was mentioned. I got up early the next morning and went to the local convenience store to by a local newspaper. Not a single word about this sighting was uttered or printed by any of the local news media sources.

(NOTE: This is a prime example of exactly ‘how and why’ a vast majority of UFO sightings never get reported and documented.)

The photo below is one that I took in the fall of 1987 while in the Colorado Rocky Mountains near Monarch Pass on the continental divide. Could one of the objects in the close-up view shown in this photograph be that of a black triangle/flying wing? The similarities are uncanny and striking.

The following photo is reportedly that of a rare multi-witnessed daylight ‘Black Triangle’ sighting. Although I cannot personally vouch for its authenticity, I was struck by the detail and it seems consistent in shape and lighting configuration shown in other black triangular craft taken from around the world in recent years. (The seven green lights on the triangular object that I and others observed in 1982 appears to be an exception to the rule and most of the black triangles have been reported with the lighting arrangement and configuration as shown below.)







	Webmasters computer rendered drawing of a gigantic craft silently floating over head at an intersection (JFK and McCain Blvd in North Little Rock, Arkansas) seen in 1984 in late September around 8:15 PM CDT while sitting at a stop light. One other witness saw the event. The object was lit from lights that were dimmed the second they were on.

Have you recently seen a black triangle gliding silently through the air? And if so, how was it shaped and how were the lights (if any) arranged or configured on the craft? Did it look like any of the objects depicted in this article?

Please contact me if you have any other photos, accounts or sightings regarding strange ‘Black Triangular’ or ‘Flying Wing’ types of craft that you would like to contribute. The following are addresses that you may use if you have any further questions or information: