1978-07-01 - Edina, MN - Triangle

7/1/78 01:00hours Edina/Minneapolis. MN. single very slow moving black triagle, 2 min visible

In midsummer 1978 I was in tenth grade, about to start eleventh grade. I had bought a small motorcycle (250 Kawasaki) to get around by myself and have a little freedom. I worked a few nights a week as a dishwasher at a high end Chinese restaurant called Howard Wongs. Another dishwasher and I got off work about 01:00. She needed a ride home and she was very cute so I volunteered. She lived with her mother in an apartment building directly across the (North to South)street from a large grocery store. The Grocery store (Byerly's) and the apartment building were both on the south side of and east west interstate that runs between Edina and Minneapolis. I am sighting these details to give you the exact address, and also give you an idea that the area is very well lit, and in the urban/suburban category, almost directly on an interstate.

She and I were talking for a few minutes as we were leaning on my motorcycle in the parking lot of the apartment building. For some reason I looked up at the sky that was mostly clear but had a very few mid-level clouds approximately 1200 ft. I know this because my father was a pilot, and I had spent nearly every weekend (like thousands of hours) of my young life in a small engine airplane, literally since I was born.

Something caught my eye as I looked up. I could see several stars, but the streetlights prevented seeing all of them. The clouds above were slightly illuminated from the city lights, but there were only a very few clouds, and most crystal clear skies. But nearly directly above us, and a little to the west, toward the Byerly lot, I could see that there was a very slow moving completely black triangle! It appeared to be quite low, maybe about 300-400 feet altitude. Once I spotted it, I immediately thought that I would here the sound of the engine of some idiot flying without tower cleareance, without lights, in an ultralight aircraft. But to my astonishment there was absolutely no sound, completely silent. I also was in astonishment that there were no lights or beacons on the aircraft, and that it was absolutely black, absolutely black as pitch. The only way I could tell its shape was that it was so very slow moving, and I could clearly see its shape against the stars and few distant clouds as it passed them. There was no wind that night. As the object moved in what appeared to be a directly North direction, I could clearly also observe that its velocity did absolutely not change. I was observing its speed because the only other plausible explanation was that it was some freaking idiot in a hang glider.

I excluded the midnight hang glider because the speed and direction and altitude did not change at all.

Also, there are no hills in Edina, and nobody hang glides in the twin cities, but I had run out of any explanations. The object was visible to me for at least two minutes as it moved steadily North at what I thought might be 20-30 miles per hour.

Since the object was only very slightly visible at all, my calculation of size, and speed and altitude could be off, but not by much as I had 20-15 vision at the time, and was eyeballing aircraft my whole life.

My dishwasher friend said she saw it, but if she really did, I thought later that she would be dropping her jaw like I was, and she just didn't react like she was seeing a UFO. So I really don't think she saw it, but that's OK because it was dang tough to catch.

Years have gone by now, and after the advent of the internet I finally, after 34 years, see that many others out there have seen, and are seeing, very slow moving, absolutely silent and jet black triangles.