From: http://www.phenomenamagazine.com/
0/editorial.asp?aff_id=0&this_cat=Area+51&action=page&obj_id=3711&type_id=3&cat_id=132&sub_id=0
Surprising Developments
Dateline: Wednesday, August 3, 2005
By: NICK REDFERN
By: Phenomena Co-Editor
Many people with an interest in the UFO mystery will have heard of the so-called “Flying Triangle” puzzle. For more than a decade, sightings of large, triangular-shaped UFOs, often black in color, with rounded corners and making a low, humming noise have been reported throughout the world.
A perfect example is a wave of such sightings that occurred over Staffordshire, England, in 1988 and that has been investigated extensively by Graham Allen, of the Staffordshire UFO Group.
The picture that accompanies this article displays a classic rendition of the Triangles, similar to that which can be found on the cover of the Staffordshire UFO Group's DVD on the 1988 wave: Cannock Chase UFO Hotspot UK.
The fact that the wealth of such reports is in stark contrast to the situation decades previously when Saucer-shaped vehicles were seen in abundance, has led some commentators to suspect that the Triangles are military aircraft, developed relatively recently, and perhaps along the lines of a next-generation Stealth-type vehicle.
Some probably are. However, sightings of practically identical vehicles date back at least forty years – and can be documented an official level. While digging through a whole host of formerly classified files on UFOs at the National Archive at Kew, England, I came across a one-page report dated 28 March 1965 that, I confess, I almost overlooked.
On closer inspection, however, I realized that it was potentially one of the most important UFO-related documents that I had ever come across. According to the MoD paperwork, on the night in question a man saw at approximately 9.30 p.m. over moor-land near Richmond, North Yorkshire: “Nine or ten objects – in close triangular formation each about 100ft long – orange illumination below – each triangular in shape with rounded corners, making low humming noise.”
Interestingly, the “rounded corners” and “low humming noise” are, as I said above, precisely what many witnesses to Flying Triangle-style UFO encounters are reporting today – in a worldwide capacity, no less.
Recognizing the significance of this, I made a photocopy of the document and set about locating the witness. I introduced myself and explained that I had located at the National Archive a copy of the original report that dealt with his sighting all those years ago. It is fair to say that he was shocked, to say the least, to find that details of his long-gone encounter had been kept on file by the Ministry of Defense for more than thirty years.
“Yes, I did send in a report all those years ago, but I didn’t think they would have kept it all this time,” he told me, with astonishment in his voice. As he explained, on 28 March 1965 at approximately 9.30 p.m., he had been driving through the North Yorkshire moors of England, when, on approaching the village of Skeeby, near Richmond, the engine of his car began to splutter and die.
“It was a 1951 Ford,” he stated, adding with some humor: “and it was a good car but a bit unpredictable at times. I didn’t want to break down on the moor because it was icy cold and the nights were still dark. I got out of the car to have a look at the engine and that’s when I saw this light.”
He continued: “At first, because it was so dark, I wondered if it might be a weather balloon. But then I had a good look at it over the hedge and realized how big it was and how low down it was. It was about one hundred feet from end-to-end, about one hundred feet above the moors and shaped like a huge triangle and white, milky-white in color.
“It kept coming towards me and then stopped about two hundred yards from me over the moors. It hovered for a while – nothing came out of it, but there was a light below it that just pulsated like a light bulb. There could have been quite a few lights on it but from a distance the light just looked like a glow. Then without a warning, it just took off at a speed that isn’t recognized. Good gracious, I thought, it must be a UFO.
“As it shot up, not vertically but at an angle, it joined a group of others that were identical and that were in a triangular or V-formation. The others were very, very high; a whole fleet of them. They all then headed south, I think, at a tremendous speed and disappeared over the horizon. I saw the main one for no more than a couple of minutes,” he recalled, “but after they had gone I was still stood by the moor watching this fleet disappear. I waited in case something else exciting happened, but of course it didn’t.”
Curiously, shortly after the encounter and after having reported the incident to the Ministry of Defense at Whitehall, the man began to notice “awful red marks on my skin which were like a stretch mark, but they were like a deep salmon red and they kept coming and going. But I didn’t have them before.”
The most bizarre angle of the entire episode was still to come, however, as he graphically illustrated: “For about eighteen months after the sighting, I would get strange telephone calls from people. These would be every two or three months. They just phoned out of the blue but didn’t introduce themselves.
“They just said they were from some bureau or other. They didn’t mention the name of the bureau but kept mentioning ‘sightings’ and asked whether I had seen anything else strange. Had any men come to interview me?”
The man was never visited by anyone with regard to his Flying Triangle encounter, nor did the MoD ever offer an explanation as to what it was that he saw on that fateful night in March 1965. To this day, however, that series of strange and unnerving telephone calls continues to mystify him, primarily because aside from informing the MoD of what had occurred, he made no other report – either official or unofficial – with anyone and kept the details to himself; as he is at pains to point out: “The only report I ever made was the one I sent to the MoD. It was so exciting that I had to tell someone.”
His important testimony raises a number of vital questions: Why was someone so determined to find out if he had received any strange visits with regard to his encounter? Why the interest in knowing if he had had any other unusual encounters of a UFO nature? And most important of all: who was his mysterious caller?
Was he subjected to such lengthy questioning because he inadvertently caught sight of a classified military project that the authorities wanted keeping under wraps, or because it was suspected that he had viewed something that was truly out of this world? To this day, he remains mystified by his extraordinary encounter over the Yorkshire moors in 1965. However, of one thing we can now be certain: the Flying Triangles are not a new phenomenon.
It is truly ironic, however, that confirmation of this fact should come via the previously withheld files of the British Ministry of Defense.