
When you research the UFO phenomenon, you will come across many stories that are not verifiable because there is simply no evidence and reliable witnesses. We all know the videos on YouTube that later turn out to be CGI, or stories that turn out to be completely made up. However, there are incidents that skeptical people have a hard time disproving. This includes the Belgian ‘flying triangles’ incident from 1990.
The first wave
The first significant wave of sightings of the so-called “flying triangle” occurred in March 1983 in New York State’s Hudson Valley. Witnesses spoke of “flying wings” and V-shaped UFOs. An eyewitness said the aircraft was the size of “the whole sky above us.” In the years since, hundreds of witnesses have also observed the objects.
Yet the events in Belgium in 1990 brought the flying triangle to the world’s attention and led to one of the most well-documented UFO sightings of all time. After a wave of sightings on November 29, 1989, there had been a lot of UFO activity in Belgium, reported by reliable witnesses in sound reports. These included trained observers from the army and the Belgian police force, people who are not so quick to misinterpret an object or phenomenon.
Many sightings involved a large triangular object. The Belgian Air Force then decided to take off a few fighter planes if a particularly interesting sighting should occur. Unfortunately, the pilots made a painful discovery: they were sent to investigate to conclude that it was a laser show. As a result, the military decided to send planes only when the activity was confirmed on the radar.
Radar evidence
And that is exactly what happened on the night of March 30, 1990 and the early morning of the next day. The sightings were concentrated in the Wavre area. It always involved three lights flying in a perfect triangle. Many people saw these lights on the underside of a huge triangular aircraft. The object was detected on the radar screens of two ground stations, one of the Belgian Air Force and one of NATO. Two F16 aircraft were immediately dispatched and kept on standby by the Belgian Air Force. The fighters soon caught the object on radar and used it to track the object. However, the ‘thing’ managed to escape several times and seemed to be able to transition almost instantly from hovering motionless to a speed of more than 1000 km per hour.
The evasive movements indicated that an intelligence was controlling the unidentified craft, but the acceleration displayed would have killed every human occupant. The Belgian Air Force could not explain the events and teamed up with a Belgian UFO investigation team to investigate the matter further.
A senior Air Force officer, Colonel Wilfred de Brouwer, frankly admitted that the UFO was an actual flying object that had entered Belgian airspace without authorization. That was a major breakthrough, given that military and political figures have consistently denied the UFO phenomenon. This taboo was slowly fading thanks to the Disclosure Project and the now famous press conference in 2001. The Belgian colonel has also had his say several times regarding this incident, which would be unthinkable before.
Nighttime sightings
Three years later, the “flying triangle” reappeared in England. Many sightings took place in the early hours of March 31, 1993, and perhaps because of this time, most of the witnesses were police officers and guards from military bases. The descriptions were eerily similar to the Belgian sightings. Many people saw three lights flying in formation; others said the three lights marked the corners of a giant, triangular flying object.
Two messages are particularly noteworthy. The first concerns a sighting from RAF Cosford base in Shropshire. An entire military surveillance patrol saw the UFO fly directly over the base. The air traffic controllers on duty were immediately consulted, but to no avail – there were no aircraft in the area.
Security Threat
The most sensational news came that night from an officer of the RAF metrology service in Shawbury, a few miles from Cosford. After a UFO sighting there, he went outside to see if there was anything to see. To his amazement, he saw a triangular craft that flew toward the base with a soft humming sound. He estimated the colossus to be slightly smaller than a jumbo jet. The object projected a light beam onto the ground and moved back and forth as if looking for something. Then the lights went out, and the object flew almost straight over the base.
The Department of Defense launched an extensive investigation into these sightings in a desperate attempt to find an explanation. The ministry had always claimed that UFOs “didn’t affect defense”, but was now faced with a dilemma. When so many military witnesses reported that unidentified triangular craft flew straight over two key military institutions, it was hard to maintain that these events were immaterial and had no impact on the country’s defenses.
The ministry tried to link the sightings to some more mundane events. Because it was assumed that at least 90% of UFO sightings could be explained by common causes, they made very specific inquiries about the movements of airplanes, airships and weather balloons. They even asked the Royal Observatory in Greenwich if there could be an astronomical explanation, for example, an unusual activity of meteors, but all this led to nothing.
There was a theory that the re-entry of a Russian missile caused the lights in the sky. But while this event could account for a particular group of high-altitude light sightings at 1:10 a.m., the UFO sightings persisted for several hours. Because observations like those in Shawburry could not be explained in this way, the theory had to be abandoned again.
Aircraft Prototypes
Since the 1990s, rumors have circulated that the flying triangles are a prototype of a secret aircraft. It would then be the secret ‘aurora’ aircraft, which would serve as a replacement for the Lockheed SR-71 ‘Blackbird’.
The Belgian Air Force has investigated the possibility that the triangle observed in 1990 was an American F-117 Stealth fighter but was assured that this could not be the case. It was unlikely anyway because secret aircraft are tested in a specific (closed) area and, in any case, do not fly into secured airspace without permission. After all, one would risk a diplomatic incident and risk that the aircraft would be intercepted with all the consequences that entail. For these reasons, the British government rejected that it was a secret American prototype aircraft.
In the meantime, were the real pilots of this aircraft enjoying the confusion they caused now that the authorities could not find an explanation? There is an interesting connection between the incidents in England and Belgium: both waves of sightings took place on March 30, late at night and in the early hours of the next day. If the media picked up these UFO stories, the stories would appear on… April 1. Who would pay much attention to a UFO story on April 1? Is this coincidence an elaborate mystification or a sign of a sense of humor on the part of the intelligence behind the flying object?
While the waves of sightings of the flying triangle are essential, not least because of military witnesses and national security, we should be aware that there are daily reports of sightings of this object, often from pilots. The records of every UFO group around the world contain countless examples of witnesses who have come face to face with this most secretive visitor.