2004-09-15 - Independence, MO - Triangle

Observed triangular object moving over house.

I am submitting this now because I just came across this site. The date is approximate as I remember the time of year because I had just finished building a deck on the rear of my home and that was in mid-September of 2004. I am a high school debate teacher and had only started school a few weeks earlier, so that also reminds me of the approximate date. But I cannot recall the exact date at this time.

I woke up around 1:00 in the morning for no particular reason and could not fall back asleep. After sitting in the living room for a bit, I decided to go out on my deck to have a cigarette.

It was a completely clear night. I do not recall if there was a moon or not. As I was smoking, I spent time just staring up at the stars. I am not much for astronomy, but there was nothing else to really do and I was trying to get myself back into a mode for sleep.

I first noticed something in the sky to the west of my home. I was sitting in the back of the house which faces northeast. I had been sitting outside for about 20 minutes at this point. I did not identify what I saw as an "object" at first. There was a triangular shape, but my first thought was that it was a flock of Canadian geese. I continued to watch only because it was something to look at. The shape continued to come slowly from the west heading roughly southwest at what seemed to be a rather slow pace.

After what felt like less than 5 minutes of watching, the shape was pretty much directly over the back yard of my neighbor to the immediate west. This is where I had my first impression that what I was looking at wasn't a flock of geese.

First, as it was coming toward my yard, it seemed far too rigid lines to be geese. The shape seemed fairly low to the ground too. I estimate it was no higher than 1000 ft, but likely less. As the shape moved over into my yard, I noticed that the stars didn't seem "right" between the two lines of the "V" shape. By that I mean they seemed a bit fuzzier and dimmed.

What really convinced me that I was not seeing geese was when I noticed a straight line connecting the two ends at the rear of the "V" shape, making it a triangle. As I tried to "come to grips" with what my brain was saying I was seeing, I also noticed a strange distortion along the outer edges of the triangular object. I would best describe it as being like the heat waves one sees coming off of hot pavement. This distortion was visible on all three sides, but I am not sure I would have noticed it if the sky hadn't been so clear otherwise.

There were no noticable lights coming from the object and absolutely no sound. Any other time I have seen geese flying in a "V" formation, I recall usually eventually hearing a goose call or two as they fly overhead. Here, it was total silence.

The object continued to move in a straight line to to the southwest. As the object moved past my yard I could no longer see the outer edge distortion, however there were still three distinct sides to the object. After about a total of 10 minutes or so of viewing the object was out of sight again.


(NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that date of incident is approximate. PD))