New York Skies (Cheryl Costa)

UFO 1979: The Herkimer Black Triangle UFO

Columnist Cheryl Costa shares the story of a snowmobiler’s encounter with a black triangle UFO

Who knew that a simple winter’s night snowmobile ride would result in the sighting of a black triangle UFO?

Triangular-shaped UFOs have been in the media over the past 20 years or so. Numerous television shows have reported cases from different parts of the U.S. and western Europe. These craft are usually about the size of a football field, being about two stories thick. They typically are reported as having three major glowing orbs on the underside. They are usually a non-reflective black in color, but they’ve also been reported as glowing in orange or yellow. The strangest element is that most reports say that they are unnervingly silent.

The CNY region is not without its reports of these triangle-shaped crafts. Among the earliest known upstate reports of a black triangle UFO was in January of 1979 in Herkimer, NY.  One winter’s night, a snowmobiler who lived in the country was going to visit a friend five miles away. He stated that suddenly it became quiet. He couldn’t hear his sled’s engine and the snowmobile’s light went out. He looked up and could make out the outline of a huge black triangle blocking out the stars. It had no lights and was silent. He said it took about two minutes for it to pass over head. It was perhaps 100 feet off the ground and when it passed under the high tension wires, arcs began jumping from the power lines to the top of the craft. He watched it move away over a hill and then out of sight. When he got home, nobody believed him.

There was also a sighting a few years later in October of 1982 in Owasco, NY near Owasco Lake. In October 2010, a black triangle UFO was reported in Skaneateles that was observed by a number of people at a football game. In December 2011, near Sylvan Beach, NY, a family observed two of these crafts. Not to be left out, residents in the city of Syracuse observed several of these triangular crafts. One was seen over Hiawatha Lake moving northwest in June of 2012 in the early hours of the day. Notably, two years ago a small cluster of sightings of black triangle UFOs  happened in May 2013 in the regional New York City area.

The most recent report was logged in Earlville, NY on July 15, 2013. A young woman was called outside by her excited boyfriend. She reported that he pointed up in the sky and some distance from them was a huge orange triangle. They watched it for a few minutes as it slowly moved away and disappeared.

A curious aspect regarding these black triangles is the frequency of their sightings. When I examined the sighting data for the 20 years between 1979 through 2000, there were a total of 34 sighting reports for the entire state of New York. Yet from 2001 to 2015, the number of Black Triangle sightings has more than tripled.

Let’s look at some recent UFO sightings in New York Skies

  • July 16, 2015: At 9 p.m., an upstate resident observed bright red-orange light that seemed to change color every 10 minutes or so. The object was headed west.
  • July 16, 2015: At 10:30 p.m., several upstate residents witnessed a large object just over the tree line. It had three or four larger red-orange lights in a row.
  • July 18, 2015: At 10:30 p.m., several residents of Aurora, NY observed glowing red-orange balls moving slowly across sky from east to west at a steady speed. The object disappeared at great speed behind trees.
  • July 19, 2015: At 11:06 p.m., multiple Poughkeepsie residents saw a circular-disc object. They describe it as having three lights; red, orange and yellow. They say they lost sight of the object in the tree line.

If you are interested in joining a monthly UFO discussion group in Onondaga County area, drop Cheryl an email [email protected]. If you have a UFO sighting to report, you can use either one of the two national database services: nuforc.org or mufon.com. Both services respect confidentiality.

Cheryl Costa would love to hear the when, where and what of your New York sighting. Email it to [email protected]. The names of witnesses will be omitted to protect their privacy.

Go Home

[fbcomments url="" width="100%" count="on"]
To Top