1987-08-13 - Springfield, OH - Triangle

Massive triangular pattern of large white lights above clouds ... completely silent motion

Mid-August 1987. I was 13 years old and living in Springfield, Ohio. At approximately 9 p.m., I was in an urban shopping mall parking lot, sitting on the trunk of my father's car while he and my brother finished shopping inside. There was dense low cloud cover, perhaps at 1,000 feet altitude. I was tossing a toy up in the air and catching it ... once, twice. But on the third toss, as I watched the toy, my eyes drifted away to the most incredible sight I have ever seen. Three enormous white lights -- each about the size of a cup saucer -- silently hung in the sky. They were above the blanket of clouds, so they were diffused. Together, they formed an even more enormous equilateral triangle. If the lights were the endpoints of a single triangular object, each side would roughly equal the length of an American football field. I blinked, looked down and closed my eyes, then looked back up again. The lights remained directly overhead. The lights just hovered there, motionless, for about a minute. Then, in unison, they began to rotate in a slow counter-clockwise pattern. Simultaneously, they began moving north at about 30-40 mph. There was no engine or rotor noise of any kind. Beyond the extraordinary silence, the motion itself was bizarre: There seemed to be no acceleration. The motion was instantaneous and fluid. (Imagine having a VCR set on "Pause," then pressing "Play" to watch something move.) Within a couple of minutes, the lights had moved over a nearby hill and out of view. In a mix of shock, fear, and excitement, I immediately ran back into the shopping mall to find my father and brother. I told them what I had seen and demanded that we get in the car and drive north, to see if we could find the lights. They humored me, but we saw nothing. I knew they probably thought I was crazy, but I didn't care. As far as I know, there were no other witnesses around the shopping mall. But I never bothered to check. Also, my father -- who happened to be a prominent city politician -- had friends at the local municipal airport, which also served as an Air National Guard base. At my request, he phoned the control tower to find out if there had been any unusual air traffic that night. There wasn't. I was completely perplexed, and remain so to this day. (Note: I have a degree in journalism and graduate work in information sciences. I used to be an amateur astronomer and airplane afficiando. I am married and hold an administrative position at a college in Ohio.)