Stationary black triangle over LAX area during crowded morning traffic on highway 405, Los Angles
This happened in 1986, and I've finally figured it's time to tell this story after all these years. Because I've worked for some law enforcement support companies, I've always hesitated to do anything that could have been a “problem” at work.
This happened in the week around Easter, 1986 in Los Angeles. I was working for a special effects company that mainly worked doing laser EFX for rock tours, motion pictures. Our shop was in W. LA, and I had a job installing a laser system at the Spruce Goose theater in Long Beach, CA. I had been working there every day including the holiday to get the show ready for the grand opening, and with the bad LA traffic at that time, I had to leave the shop very early to make it to Long Beach in time to get in at least 8 hours.
On this morning, it would have been about 7-8 a.m. Traffic on the 405 going south was very, very slow, and with lots of stops and starts. I had just passed LAX airport on my right, and was in the area where there were lots of defense contractors such as the huge TRW and Hughes plants. I was in a second from the outside right lane of traffic, and all the cars had come to a stop. I was just glancing around, waiting to get moving again when I happened to look up. I did this a lot in that area as there were many large commercial jets in the area landing at LAX and it was something to do while stalled in traffic. I had heard a plane nearby, and as I looked up, I could see a fairly large, and completely stationary black triangle hovering possibly as much as 500ft over the buildings off to my right. It just hung in the air, as if frozen. There were no lights, noise of any engine, and it was a dark flat black in color.
I thought that it was very, very odd, but considering the area that I was in, I considered that it may have been some exotic antenna that was being tested at Hughes, etc. Then it crossed my mind that it would have been very hazardous to have something like that so close to commercial aircraft in flight.
I watched this triangle for maybe 2 minutes, and at one point, the driver in the car next to me was looking at me staring up through my windshield. I looked at him, and motioned with my finger to look up, which he did. He looked directly at this same object for about 30 seconds, then looked back at me and shrugged as if to say, “I don't know what it is either.”. At this point, traffic started to move again, and I tried to watch for as long as possible at this object, but I quickly had to put my attention to driving again and once I could not see it from my front windshield, I lost view of it. On the trip home that evening, I made a point of slowing down at the same location to take a look, and there was nothing that I could see, however it was dark out by then. Just lots of normal aircraft lights at that time. For the next 4-5 days as I continued on that project, I made a point of looking every time I was in that area, but never have seen the object since.
The size to me may have been about 50 feet wide, with almost a perfect triangle shape. The thickness was hard to judge, but I would say maybe 5 feet. I looked very closely to see if there was a tether as there were lots of advertising balloons in the area along the 405, but there were none that I could see, however the object's lack of movement made it appear as if it was tethered. It is windy in that area from the air coming in from the nearby Pacific Ocean. The “point” or nose of this shape would have been pointing NE, about 2 miles south of LAX on the west side of the highway above industrial buildings. I believe there was a wide bend or curve at the point of the highway. I have not seen any object like that before or since that day. It does remind me of the appearance of the stealth aircraft that many of these companies in that area most likely worked on, and I have always had a thought that what I saw that day may have had something to with that, however at that time, those programs were all still very secret I believe. Oh, the sky was clear and blue, and with the morning sun coming up, and not much pollution yet from traffic.
((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that date of incident is approximate. PD))
This happened in 1986, and I've finally figured it's time to tell this story after all these years. Because I've worked for some law enforcement support companies, I've always hesitated to do anything that could have been a “problem” at work.
This happened in the week around Easter, 1986 in Los Angeles. I was working for a special effects company that mainly worked doing laser EFX for rock tours, motion pictures. Our shop was in W. LA, and I had a job installing a laser system at the Spruce Goose theater in Long Beach, CA. I had been working there every day including the holiday to get the show ready for the grand opening, and with the bad LA traffic at that time, I had to leave the shop very early to make it to Long Beach in time to get in at least 8 hours.
On this morning, it would have been about 7-8 a.m. Traffic on the 405 going south was very, very slow, and with lots of stops and starts. I had just passed LAX airport on my right, and was in the area where there were lots of defense contractors such as the huge TRW and Hughes plants. I was in a second from the outside right lane of traffic, and all the cars had come to a stop. I was just glancing around, waiting to get moving again when I happened to look up. I did this a lot in that area as there were many large commercial jets in the area landing at LAX and it was something to do while stalled in traffic. I had heard a plane nearby, and as I looked up, I could see a fairly large, and completely stationary black triangle hovering possibly as much as 500ft over the buildings off to my right. It just hung in the air, as if frozen. There were no lights, noise of any engine, and it was a dark flat black in color.
I thought that it was very, very odd, but considering the area that I was in, I considered that it may have been some exotic antenna that was being tested at Hughes, etc. Then it crossed my mind that it would have been very hazardous to have something like that so close to commercial aircraft in flight.
I watched this triangle for maybe 2 minutes, and at one point, the driver in the car next to me was looking at me staring up through my windshield. I looked at him, and motioned with my finger to look up, which he did. He looked directly at this same object for about 30 seconds, then looked back at me and shrugged as if to say, “I don't know what it is either.”. At this point, traffic started to move again, and I tried to watch for as long as possible at this object, but I quickly had to put my attention to driving again and once I could not see it from my front windshield, I lost view of it. On the trip home that evening, I made a point of slowing down at the same location to take a look, and there was nothing that I could see, however it was dark out by then. Just lots of normal aircraft lights at that time. For the next 4-5 days as I continued on that project, I made a point of looking every time I was in that area, but never have seen the object since.
The size to me may have been about 50 feet wide, with almost a perfect triangle shape. The thickness was hard to judge, but I would say maybe 5 feet. I looked very closely to see if there was a tether as there were lots of advertising balloons in the area along the 405, but there were none that I could see, however the object's lack of movement made it appear as if it was tethered. It is windy in that area from the air coming in from the nearby Pacific Ocean. The “point” or nose of this shape would have been pointing NE, about 2 miles south of LAX on the west side of the highway above industrial buildings. I believe there was a wide bend or curve at the point of the highway. I have not seen any object like that before or since that day. It does remind me of the appearance of the stealth aircraft that many of these companies in that area most likely worked on, and I have always had a thought that what I saw that day may have had something to with that, however at that time, those programs were all still very secret I believe. Oh, the sky was clear and blue, and with the morning sun coming up, and not much pollution yet from traffic.
((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that date of incident is approximate. PD))
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
Off
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Los Angeles
USA
3 minutes
3 minutes
34.04
-118.30
triangle
CA
Occurred : 3/25/1986 07:45 (Entered as : 03/25/86 7:45) Reported: 6/24/2008 9:06:43 AM 09:06 Posted: 7/5/2008 Location: Los Angeles, CA Shape: Triangle Duration: 3 minutes Characteristics: There were aircraft in the vicinity or aircraft chasing the object
Stationary black triangle over LAX area during crowded morning traffic on highway 405, Los Angles