NUFORC Sighting 115225

Occurred: 1994-08-15 23:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2014-11-09 22:13 Pacific
Duration: 1 minutes
No of observers: 3

Location: Ida, MI, USA

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object

Low Flying Triangle over southeast MI in 1994.

I am reporting an event I witnessed in 1994, twenty years ago. A lot of time has passed, but it was one of those moments that get seared into one's mind forever. I would like to give some background information and describe my experience as best as I can recall it.

On a summer evening in late August, my friend, mother and I were laying outside in our yard on our trampoline. It may have been around 11 to midnight as it was most definitely dark, and the sun would not have set until 9:15pm that time of year. We were idly stargazing and chatting as we often did. We lived near rural Ida, Michigan, (an agricultural community in southeast Michigan, about an hour south of Detroit, near the Ohio border) and did not have a lot of light pollution so stargazing was a normal summer evening past time.

I would often track commercial airlines and watch the horizons because where we lived is defined by very flat, treeless farmland and uninterrupted views could be see in any direction. Plane spotting was easy as we seemed to live under the flight path of the Detroit Metro Airport, and would very often view low flying commercial aircraft circling over our house. So I am very familiar with viewing planes at night.

On that evening, however, I recall quietly talking, and not really paying attention to anything particular in the sky. However, I remember all at once immediately realizing that I could not see the stars up above me. It was a clear night. I recall sitting up in the trampoline, looking up and seeing a mass in the air above our yard that was large enough to seem to sit over the entire property as it passed, which was around ¾ of an acre. I could tell it was a triangular mass only by lights on three points. I generally recall that they were not too bright, yet also illuminated the ground around us below. It was low, seemingly floating just barely over the top of our barn and farmhouse, however, since I did regularly experience those low flying planes that were waiting to land, I knew it only seemed to be that low. What was most eerie about the encounter that the flying mass seemed to make little or no noise. It glided almost over like a helium float, but in a controlled and steady fashion. I recall there being something like a low pulse hum, but I don't remember it being loud, like if I had been in the house or if there was traffic noise etc, I may not have noticed it at all.

The mass headed in a southern direction. However, I did not watch it to see where it went. To be honest, my friend and I were scared out of our minds and as soon as it directly overhead us, I remember fleeing to our house in sheer terror, dragging my mother along, who was laying tummy down and didn't notice it right away (which tells you how quiet it was). I was very freaked out, as the 90's was hooked on X-Files and crop signs, but I don't ever remember feeling it was alien. It's hard to explain, but even though I couldn't explain it, and I feared it, I felt it was military or something.

The only thing I can't quite remember is, is if there was a center light. I feel like I remember there being a cooler light in the center of the mass, but I am not entirely sure as I only acutely remember the three lights making the triangular shape.

I never again saw an object like that fly in the skies where we lived. Although, I did note lights that would seem like satellites in the sky, (bright, no twinkle) but would stop and start movement in the sky in unpredictable patterns. And when they move, I would get light interference in radio signals. (I would often wear headphones and listen to fm radio on my Walkman if I was stargazing alone). I noted these most often in western skies and off and on over several years. I don't know if this was related.

Posted 2014-11-14

© 2023 National UFO Reporting Center. All rights reserved. Use or reproduction within any application without written consent is prohibited.