UFO Description: A triangle-shaped UFO with white strobing and circulating lights flew low over two witnesses at different locations.

Witness(es): Jackie Montgomery (pseudonym) and husband Mike Montgomery (pseudonym).

Time and Date: January 27, 2007, at about 6:38 to 6:55 PM PST.

Duration: About 17 minutes for Jackie and 10 minutes for Mike.

Place: Downtown Salem, Oregon, at Mission and High Streets SE for Jackie and near Shurman Rd. S for Mike and Jackie both at their home.

Weather: Clear sky with a few clouds. No precipitation. Winds out of the north at about 12 mph.

Case Report: Salem Low-Flying Triangle UFO Case Report (long download).  Investigated by Tom Bowden, State Director, Oregon MUFON and Keith Rowell, Assistant State Director, Oregon MUFON.

 

Brief Narrative

Jackie Montgomery was leaving a downtown Salem, Oregon, restaurant in her car with her two year old son, Jamie, when she heard a low humming/droning sound and looked up to see a low-flying, brightly lit set of three bluish-white lights flashing at three to six times a second and seeming to form a circulating triangle. She couldn't see anything else attached to the three lights. It moved along very slowly for an aircraft and was quite low. Her son also saw the lights and gestured and talked about them. A family walking along was also looking up at the lights.

At a stop light, Jackie called her husband Mike, who had minutes earlier gone outside to identify the source of the humming/droning sound, but was unsuccessful. Jackie told Mike her location and he moved outside on their front porch, looked in her direction, and soon saw the lights. After a few minutes, Jackie and Jamie arrived home and now all three watched the lights meander along over Minto Island south and then turn west and then northward to eventually disappear in the distance. All this occurred in about 15 to 20 minutes time.

Jackie called the tower at Salem's McNary Airfield, and the tower official knew nothing about this downtown Salem interloper.

This illustration is a frame from Mike Montgomery's video animation of what he and Jackie saw from their house. (The frame is lightened here to highlight background detail, and two lights have been added in this still frame to give the impression of a triangle of circulating and flashing lights that Mike's video shows very well.)

Photo Illustration of the UFO