This sighting of a Black Triangle is unusual in that the BT flew over a large West
Coast city (San Jose, CA) at a relatively low altitude, was seen by two witnesses nearly
colliding with a commercial jetliner, and was heading from the direction of Moffet Air
Force Base. Its low altitude and its sudden acceleration to high speed
indicate that it probably had recently taken off from a nearby airport.
General location: San Jose, CA, 6.5 miles due south of Norman Y.
Mineta San Jose International Airport
Location of witnesses: 4718 Meridian Avenue, San Jose, CA 95118
Date: 28 August 2002
Time: 8:30 pm just after sunset
Witnesses: Kenny Thomas (35 yrs old) and Jeff Piexoto (20 years old)
Occupations: Recording musicians
Just after sunset Kenny and Jeff stepped outside their music recording studio for a
smoke. The sky was clear. Kenny noticed a high flying aircraft with a very
bright light on it. At first Kenny and Jeff thought it was an airplane, but they
weren't sure. Kenny went inside to get a pair of binoculars. He determined it
was a helicopter, heading northwest towards Moffet Air Force Base. At that point
Jeff then went back inside.
Not long afterwards, Kenny noticed a large commercial jetliner approaching from the
northwest. He said it might have been an MD11. He was used to seeing
commercial aircraft flying over his studio home, because he was under the flight path to
San Jose International Airport. Aircraft would routinely make a U-turn over his
studio as they turned back north to line up with the runways at the airport.
What was unusual about this sighting was he spotted a triangular stealth-black object
following the jetliner. He yelled for Jeff to come back out, and pounded on the
door. The BT was larger (wider) than the jetliner. It was flying faster than
the jetliner, and was on a collision course. The jetliner was flying at about 2,000
feet, the typical altitude for aircraft on landing approach to San Jose I.A. Just as
both aircraft were reaching Kenny's location, he said the BT suddenly slowed down and
seemed to momentarily stop in midair just before it would have hit the jetliner.
Jeff came outside just as the jetliner banked left on its normal flight path to the
airport, moving out of the way of the Black Triangle. Jeff said he first saw the BT
nearly motionless as the jetliner banked. He also said the jetliner was large, and
resembled a Boeing 747.
As soon as the jetliner was no longer in the BT's path, Kenny and Jeff said it shot
ahead at high speed, silently, and disappeared out of sight in about 5-6 seconds. It
flew straight at the same altitude in a southeasterly direction. Visibility was
limited by surrounding buildings and houses to two miles, however, and Jeff said he
thought the BT was headed out towards the Pacific Ocean. But the BT was traveling to
the southeast, which would not take it in the direction of the ocean if it stayed its
course. Rather it would be following the coastline. He did say it was
traveling from the direction of Moffet AFB.
Because it was twilight (just after sunset) Kenny and Jeff could see the outline of the
BT very well. Kenny said the edges of the triangle glowed purplish, similar to that
of a black light. Some of the light illuminated the underside of the craft around
its edges. Jeff said the BT appeared purplish black and was slightly transparent (or
gave him that impression).
