The Preston Flying Triangle Incident 11th January 1998 - Bill Bimson

Introduction

The flying triangle is a phenomenon which has been under investigation since the early 80’s. Descriptions of the flying triangle (FT) vary from case to case but most are black or dark coloured with a bright white light in each corner of the triangle. They are often accompanied by other lights on the craft itself and occasionally, as in the case of this report, are seen ejecting other lights.

Some researchers believe they are of Extra-Terrestrial (ET) origin, others believe they are a secret military aircraft using technology which is unknown to mainstream scientists and engineers. However, there is no conclusive proof for either side of the argument. This article describes one particular case in the area of Preston that was researched by myself and Tony Eccles.

Description of incident

On Sunday the 11th of January 1998 at 7 a.m., Gordon Davies (pseudonym) was on his bicycle in the Ashton district of Preston carrying out his usual newspaper round. He was heading South on Woodplumpton Road (B5411). While cycling along the road his peripheral vision was caught by a bright light in the sky. The light was very low and close to the Chimney of Tulketh mill which was approximately a quarter of a mile away. The mill is now used by the Littlewoods mail order company. After catching full sight of the object, he could make out a red strobe light similar to the navigation light on a conventional aircraft. He cycled further, then turned left into Lytham Road where he stopped to get a better view of the object. From this observation he noted that the light was actually three lights in a triangular formation and that the approximate direction of travel was towards him. After approximate measurements of distance and time, the speed was estimated at 45 mph. The altitude of the craft has been estimated from Gordon’s description as 200 feet. From his new vantage point he could make out that the craft body was black, triangular in shape and very large. This was difficult to see from his earlier more distant location because it was still dark at 7 a.m. As the craft flew almost straight above him he could hear a quiet low humming noise, but no jet or turboprop noise. As it was flying overhead, the triangle shot out two small star like lights, which moved very quickly. One was white and moved too quickly for him to track. The other was red and he was able to track this for 5 to 7 seconds before it was lost behind some local houses. Neither of the star like objects changed course in the short time that they were visible but the FT changed direction immediately after firing out the two star like objects. During the change in direction, Gordon did not notice the aircraft bank as a normal aircraft would. We have ascertained that the final course of the FT was approximately 240 degrees and its initial course was very approximately 210 degrees. The final course would take the triangle close to the British Aerospace plant at Warton some 10 miles away. After this Gordon continued with his newspaper round and about five minutes later, he could still see the object in the distance, but all he could make out by this time was a bright light. Measurements were made at the site of the incident and a rough estimation of size made. It is clear from these measurements that the craft was very large, but not outside the size limits of conventional fixed wing aircraft.

Evidence

No physical evidence was left at the scene of the incident, no photographs or video footage were taken and to the best of our knowledge nobody else saw the craft. The fact that it was a Sunday at 7 a.m. is unfortunate as very few people are about at this time in the area and hence, we are left with a single eye witness testimony. However, another FT was spotted by witnesses in Cheshire on the same date that Gordon sighted the FT over Preston, although the one spotted in Cheshire had quite different characteristics. The case in Cheshire was researched by Eric Morris at the British UFO Studies Centre (BUFOSC) and published in Intelligence magazine. Another FT was spotted in Cheshire on the 16th of January 1998 which had a similar description to the one Gordon saw, (Alien Encounters magazine April 98).

I filed a low flying complaint with Airstaff 2B at the Ministry of Defence to try to determine if any military aircraft may have been responsible for the sighting. However, they denied that it was a military aircraft and advised me to contact the civil aviation authority (CAA) in case a civilian aircraft was the cause. The CAA stated that no civilian aircraft had filed night time flight plans with them for the area of Preston. This is a basic requirement for all civilian aircraft which fly in January before 0800 hours. No flight accident/incident reports were filed with the CAA which is another basic requirement if an aircraft is forced to fly so low over a built up area due to, for example, engine trouble.

Conclusions

The visual description of the craft rules out astronomical and meteorological explanations. Conventional aircraft are ruled out by the absence of turboprop and jet noise, the presence of the low humming noise, and the ejection of the star like lights. The evidence points to Either an Extra-Terrestrial (ET) craft or secret military technology which is unknown by mainstream scientists and engineers. The case for an ET craft The argument for an ET craft is that, if it is not secret military technology, there is little else left that it could be other than an alien craft. The reasons for it not being secret military technology are :

1. The military would not be so stupid to test such a secret craft over a built up area.

2. The noise made by the craft and its speed suggests a new type of engine which is so revolutionary that it could not be kept secret for very long.

3. If it was military, the ejection of the star like objects suggest a weapons or decoy discharge which would carry considerable danger over a built up area.

4.The flight path so close too the mill chimney would be ruled out by flight planners except in the most extreme conditions such as an operational sortie during war.

5. The witness thought that the aircraft did not bank when it turned.

6. The performance characteristics are so far in advance of other military aircraft that its development costs would consume a fair chunk of any countries gross national product thereby making it impossible to keep secret.

The case for new military technology.

1. The craft was described as having a red strobe light which sounds extremely conventional.

2. Some new stealth aircraft are known to appear triangular in shape when viewed from a particular direction such as the Lockheed Martin F117 stealth fighter. Another new delta wing aircraft is the Lockheed General Dynamics F22.

3. We do not know the current state of play with jet noise reduction techniques used to keep military aircraft from being heard by adversaries and new techniques may account for the low noise heard.

4. The crafts final heading was towards the British Aerospace plant at Warton where it is known that state of the art military aircraft are tested.

5. Some of the latest air to air decoy measures have their own thruster which could account for the star like objects without firing a projectile with a war head. This type of projectile would carry a much smaller risk in a built up area than an offensive weapons discharge.

6. The craft changed direction after firing the star like objects which is consistent with the use of a decoy measure. It may therefore have been a test of a decoy measure from a stealth aircraft.

A tenuous link with the Strategic Defence Initiative or “Star Wars”

The rest of this conclusion is entirely my own opinion and based on a hunch rather than scientific data.

During the years of the cold war between the Western Alliance and the Eastern block countries, the USA started to develop the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) also known as Star Wars. The purpose of this was to protect the West from a nuclear attack by the former Soviet Union. This was to be accomplished by using an array of protective satellites which would detect and destroy incoming enemy ballistic missiles before they reached warhead deployment stage. This was important because after deployment, the number of targets to be destroyed increases dramatically as each missile carries a number of decoy drones which look similar to the real warheads on radar. The USA continued to refine SDI after the cold war ended and is still doing so. On the 16th January 1998, the avionics company Raytheon tested a new infra-red sensor for SDI. The test consisted of the launch of a specially configured Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile which carried 9 dummy targets. The SDI satellite should have detected a total of 10 targets, the 9 dummies and the launch vehicle. However, the June 8th 1998 edition of Aviation Week and Space Technology reported that a total of 12 targets where detected. The extra two were described by the test co-ordinators as “unidentified celestial objects” and the test was proclaimed a success.

One might argue that the term UFO was not used to describe the unknowns because it would have generated a huge amount of interest from UFO researchers all over the world. The unknowns have been dismissed as a glitch by the test co-ordinators but proponents of the Extra Terrestrial Hypothesis (ETH) will state that to anyone looking from outside the earth, this test would look about as close as it could get to a full scale nuclear attack. Many ETHers believe that an Alien presence is here for our benefit to protect us from self destruction through environmental pollution or nuclear war. They may in future look to the presence of the unknowns in the Ratheon sensor test and quote this as evidence of ET activity to monitor or prevent nuclear war.

It is quite possible that SDI operational tests would require co-ordination and communication from land, sea and air. With such a top-secret initiative, it is obviously difficult to obtain information about this. However, secret aerial mobile sensor and communication platforms may have been airborne on the test date of the 16th January. This would link in with the sighting reported in the April edition of Alien Encounters Magazine. The 11th January may have been a rehearsal exercise which led to the sighting in Preston.

We will probably never know for certain what the origin of this particular craft was. I urge anyone who has information or has seen this type of craft to come forward and report it to MARA. Our contact details are our home page Without further information we will never know the true nature of these craft.