Incident · 9 December 1992 · Coast road near Louth, Lincolnshire, looking north-west over the coast
Louth, Lincolnshire: three lights in a triangle hover over the coast road, then shoot off at 500 mph
Also known as Louth triangle 1992, Louth UFO 1992, Lincolnshire triangle December 1992, Donna Nook UFO
Late on the afternoon of 9 December 1992 drivers on the coast road near Louth, in Lincolnshire, pulled over to watch three lights arranged in a triangle, which many took to be the corners of a single dark craft, hovering silently over the coast to the north-west. After a few minutes it turned on its axis and shot away upwards and to the north-west at a speed the witnesses guessed at 500 mph. Dozens of people phoned the local paper, and the officer commanding the RAF bombing range at Donna Nook was among those who saw it.
The MoD's UFO desk took the report from the paper's reporter a week later; the form, in the file of the Defence Intelligence branch DI55, is the only trace of the case there, and nothing on it records a follow-up with the RAF officer. A week after Louth, two controllers in Heathrow's tower reported a black inverted boomerang; the National Archives' guide links the two.
Source: MoD file DEFE 31/181, pp. 280–281 (The National Archives, opened March 2009); the form is handwritten and the witnesses' names are redacted.
Facts and claims
- documented The UFO desk's handwritten report form, received on Friday 17 December 1992 from a local newspaper reporter, records for Thursday 9 December at about 4.30 pm: “Three lights forming shape of triangle. Witnesses thought they were at points of triangular shape craft. No noise.” The observers were “People driving along coastal Rd nr Louth, Lincs. Many witnesses stopped their cars and got out for better look”; the lights were towards or over the coast to the north-west, in the dark, and “Hovered. Turned on axis. Shot off at c 500 mph, towards NW ‘and up’” (DEFE 31/181, pp. 280–281). Source: defe-31-181.pdf
- documented Under other witnesses the form names the officer commanding RAF Donna Nook, the bombing range on the coast north of Louth, with a note that he could be reached through the community relations officer at RAF Coningsby; under to whom reported it says “Story ran in Lincs local paper. Dozens of witnesses phoned the paper”, and the remarks add that “Many local people experienced automatic changes in channels on their TVs that evening” (p. 281). Source: defe-31-181.pdf
Connected files
Documents
- MoD file DEFE 31/181: Defence Intelligence (DI55) UFO papers, February 1992 – April 1993 (subject of) — Pages 280–281: the UFO desk's handwritten report form of 17 December 1992
Incidents
- Heathrow control tower: a black inverted boomerang watched by two controllers (similar to) — The National Archives' guide pairs the two reports, a week apart, of a dark angular shape
Organizations
- Ministry of Defence (UK) (reported to) — Taken down by the MoD's UFO desk from a local reporter on 17 December 1992 and copied to DI55
Mentioned in this file
- National Archives and Records Administration (Organization)
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