St. Clair triangle
- Date
- 5 Jan 2000
- Place
- Highland, Lebanon, Shiloh, Summerfield, Millstadt and Dupo, St. Clair and Madison counties, Illinois, United States
- Record
- Curated case
- Assessment
- Contested
- Evidence strength
What was reported
Beginning shortly after 4 a.m., a Highland businessman and then five on-duty police officers in separate towns reported a huge, low, slow-moving object with bright lights, which most described as triangular or arrowhead-shaped, passing south-west towards Dupo near Scott Air Force Base. Scott AFB said it no longer had radar on the field and its tower was unstaffed at that hour, and the FAA suggested an advertising blimp operated in the area. The National Institute for Discovery Science investigated and produced a report on the officers' consistent descriptions; Highland officer Craig Stevens took a Polaroid at 4:28 a.m. that shows little detail. Brian Dunning (Skeptoid, 2014) argued, after calls to the regional airship operator, that the FAA's advertising-blimp explanation fits the slow, low, lit object, and that one officer's fast-moving light was an ordinary aircraft.
What officials concluded
Tentative explanation
Possibly an advertising blimp (FAA)
Strongest ordinary reading
A lit advertising airship, with an unrelated aircraft in one report (FAA; Dunning 2014); disputed by NIDS and witnesses
Evidence profile
- Yes: Visual
- No: Infrared
- No: Radar
- No: Video
- Yes: Photo
- No: Film
- Yes: Audio
- No: Night vision
- No: Other sensor
- Yes: Civilian
- No: Military aircrew
- No: Military ground
- No: Airline crew
- No: Sensor operator
- Yes: Law enforcement
- No: Scientist
- No: Astronaut
- No: Intelligence official
- No: Other
- No: Light only
- No: Orb or sphere
- No: Disc
- Yes: Triangle
- No: Cylinder
- No: Cube
- No: Other shape
- No: Physiological
- No: Physical trace
- No: Electromagnetic
- No: Sound
- Yes: Silent
Outside sources
- Wikipedia: Black triangle (2000 Southern Illinois)en.wikipedia.org
- The Debrief: the St. Clair Triangle, a fresh lookthedebrief.org
- Skeptoid 435: The St. Clair Triangle UFOskeptoid.com
On the map
38.65° N, 89.80° W, plotted at the centre of the region named in the record
Show on the map