NUFORC Sighting 71532

Occurred: 2009-08-03 23:34 Local
Reported: 2009-08-06 23:23 Pacific
Duration: 5 Minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Anacortes, WA, USA

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object

Very loud slow moving equilateral triangular aircraft with 3 white lights on bottom connected by red/peach colored lines

This happened on 8/3/09 around 23:34. I was in bed when I heard an extremely loud grating engine sound. It didn't sound like any aircraft I've ever heard before and I actually thought it might be a plane about to crash into my building. I live in an apartment in an industrial building and have no other neighbors, so as far as I know I am the only witness.

My building faces an open field on the edge of a bay and a marina to the left/north and also another industrial building across the street. Beyond the bay is an oil refinery of which some of the lights are visible above the roof of the building, those lights are a steady orange. I got out of bed and went to my window to look when it sounded like it had passed overhead. All my lights were out so I was able to see fairly decently in the dark and what I saw was a black equilateral triangular aircraft flying overhead going east.

The points of the triangle were pointy, not rounded. If I had to guess at the dimensions, I'd say this would be approximately 40-50 feet long on each side but I confess I am not spacially adept. I saw a plane flying in the same area heading north the next night and in comparison to this aircraft the plane is tiny. I was only able to see the bottom of the aircraft so I have no description of thickness or what the top or sides of it looked like. I can't estimate very well how high up it was but I might say a few hundred to 1000 feet above my building. It seemed to be moving more slowly than a normal airplane would be flying. The aircraft was solid and each point of the triangle had a large white light and the lights appeared to be connected by thick red/peach colored lines. There were no lights in the center of it and no other lights that I saw.

One of the points of the triangle was pointed toward the direction the aircraft was headed. So, looking at the back end of the aircraft, the light on the right side of it was flashing in a steady rhythm, maybe 1 flash every 2 seconds or so, it was the only light flashing and only in white. While the other two lights were not lighting up, they were still visible.

After a couple of minutes, the light at the front of the triangle began to flash white just like the other light and the two lights alternated in a steady rhythm. I watched this fly in a fairly straight path until it was almost to faint to see, I never saw the third light flash.

I do live 30 miles from a military base and considered it might be something from them but I don't know what aircraft out there is triangular. I also live in the flight path of helicopters from our hospital and know this was not a helicopter. I spent some time looking at images online the next day and know this wasn't an Aurora or a stealth plane, nor was it an Osprey based on the pictures I found. The object was solid and didn't have any wings. It was literally a flying triangle and extremely loud, unlike any other aircraft I have ever heard or seen before.

I'm extremely curious to know what it was that I saw!

Posted 2009-08-27