How Hundreds Witnessed UFOs During South Wales' "Night Of The Triangles"
September 12, 2024 1:00 AM ‐ UFOs • Long Reads
On a cold evening in 1983, an extraordinary event took place across South Wales. Dubbed the "Night of the Triangles" by the Swansea UFO Network, as many as 200 people from Milford Haven to Newport reported sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). The coastguard initially dismissed the events of January 19 as sightings of meteors, but the witness accounts and newspaper reports that surfaced over the next few days told a very different story.
The incident reportedly caused power outages, halted football matches, reports of people missing time, and countless calls to the police, with witnesses describing a range of mysterious objects moving silently through the sky.
The case has been extensively investigated by the Swansea UFO Network, a local group that has spent years tracking down and interviewing witnesses. Interest in the event was reignited in 2024 when Radio 1 DJ Sian Eleri stumbled upon the case while shooting her documentary series, 'Paranormal: The Village That Saw Aliens', although the series primarily focused on the UFO flap further along the coast in Pembrokeshire during the late 1970s.
The first reports came in around 17:15, when large objects were spotted over Swansea. Many witnesses described triangular crafts with lights of various colours - white, red, blue, green, and more. However, not all sightings described the same thing. Some spoke of elongated or oblong shapes, leading to speculation about whether people were witnessing different objects or seeing the same ones from different angles. Sizes ranged dramatically, from as small as a family car to as large as two football fields. The reported speed also varied. While some reports claimed the objects moved slowly, at speeds around 30 mph or even at a walking pace, others described the objects almost instantaneously shooting from one point in the sky to another.
The weather conditions on the night were ideal for clear visibility. Historical data shows that it was a cold evening, with temperatures hovering around 4°C at around 18:00 during the peak time of sightings. Winds were light, with a gentle westerly breeze recorded at 8mph. The sun had set at 16:27, and by 17:46, the sky had transitioned from dusk into 'evening astronomical twilight', meaning it was fully dark for the majority of the sightings. A crescent moon was visible in the sky, offering minimal light.
Photo: © Mike Straw
One of the earliest and most detailed accounts came from 14-year-old Leanne Gaskins, who described seeing a triangular object hovering over the BP oil refinery near Swansea at around 17:45. She said it had "lights all over it," defining its shape in the dark, but there was no sound. From a different viewpoint, Simon Matthews saw two sets of red lights in triangular formations blinking on and off above the refinery, which suggested the presence of two objects rather than one, something that was also suggested in other reports.
Nearby, at Kilvey Hill, another witness observed a massive oblong object with bright white lights, moving slowly around the broadcast mast. This sighting described the object as split into two parts, again highlighting the varied descriptions that night. Around the same time, another witness reported two objects - one oblong and the other triangular - moving together from Morriston to Kilvey Hill.
By 18:05, a witness in Port Talbot described seeing a silver saucer-shaped object flashing as it hovered over the steelworks, joined soon after by a second object before both moved off towards Swansea. Meanwhile, in Sketty, a driving instructor saw a black triangular craft, about the size of a car, with bright lights at each corner. Despite its small size compared to other sightings, the triangular shape and silent movement were consistent with other reports from the night.
At around 18:30, then-13-year-old Natalie Bowden saw a strange object hovering above her house. In a 2016 interview with the Swansea UFO Network, she described it as being "like a stadium of light," with cream and pink lights, and mentioned that she couldn't see the full shape because "it was immense." However, when she was interviewed by Sian Eleri for her 2024 documentary, her description was different.
"In her interview with Sian, Natalie described the object as "quite angular, not like a spacecraft you'd imagine." The variation in her accounts could raise questions about her credibility as a witness, but equally, the changes could be down to differences in how the interviews were conducted or edited.
The reports weren't limited to Swansea. By 19:00, sightings had spread to Cardiff. Carole Griffiths and her husband, driving near Llandaff Rowing Club, pulled over to watch a stationary triangular object with bright lights hovering over the River Taff. Carole, typically sceptical of UFO sightings, was shocked: "It looked like Concorde taking off, but it was just hanging there, completely still."
Several other witnesses described seeing triangular objects with lights at their corners, and a football match in Llantwit Major was even stopped when one such object flew overhead. In Cardiff, a group of 22 primary school pupils all reported seeing a massive triangular object flying low over Whitchurch, a suburb of Cardiff, further corroborating the range of sightings in different locations.
Swansea Coastguard initially dismissed the sightings as meteors burning up in the atmosphere, though many witnesses strongly disagreed. June Thomas, who saw two large triangular objects near Swansea's South Dock, rejected the meteor theory outright, stating, "What I saw wasn't a meteor. They were moving slowly and without sound." A picture June drew of her sighting was printed in the South Wales Evening Post on January 21.
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Some speculated that the falling Russian satellite, Cosmos 1402, could have caused some of the sightings, though the descriptions of silent, hovering objects didn't align with this explanation.
Power outages were reported in the Kittle and Bishopston areas of Swansea, affecting several hundred homes. While this could have been coincidental, many locals connected the blackouts to the strange objects seen that night. The power company told customers the outage was "probably caused by a branch hitting an overhead power line." Many found this response to be a little vague, but since this type of fault is fairly common, on any other night it wouldn't have been questioned.
As the evening progressed, more reports flooded in, with police receiving the bulk of the calls between 18:00 and 19:00. Even two Swansea CID officers observed a pair of objects, describing one as elongated with blue flashing lights and the other as triangular. A subsequently declassified Ministry of Defence (MOD) report noted that lights had been seen over the lifeboat station at Mumbles Head, based on a public sighting passed on to the MOD. While this doesn’t necessarily lend credibility to the reports, it does show that the events were taken seriously enough to be recorded and investigated at the time.
We asked an aviation expert, who we can only identify as "Chris," what he made of the January 1983 sightings. Chris ruled out the possibility of commercial aircraft in service in 1983, "None of them could explain the silent, slow-moving objects described by the witnesses." He further explained that even during landing, commercial aircraft would have been much faster than what was observed. "The slow, almost hovering motion that people reported isn't what you'd see with any commercial aircraft," he added.
Chris also ruled out military jets, stating, "The RAF had aircraft like the Harrier Jump Jet and Tornado in operation, but neither of them are known for silent flight, and they certainly couldn't hover or move at walking speed as these objects were described."
If not a plane, could it have been a coastguard helicopter given the coastal location? "Helicopters are not silent. They have a very distinctive rotor noise, and there are no records of any coastguard activity that evening," Chris explained. A spokesperson from RAF Brawdy has confirmed this, telling the South Wales Echo, "We haven't been flying after 4pm, so the possibility it was one of us is remote."
However, Chris said, "Some witnesses, like Detective Mike Troake, described the object as being shaped a bit like a Zeppelin. This might suggest we're dealing with a blimp." A blimp, or airship, could explain the slow, silent movement and elongated shape, though Chris added, "Blimps are rarely flown at night, and if it was a blimp, given the amount of press the event got, I'm sure someone would have come forward by now to say 'that was me'."
As for the reports of triangular-shaped craft, Chris reminds us that witnesses were looking at the objects in a dark sky, and their primary visual reference were the lights on the objects. He explained, "If people could only see the airship's lights, and they just happened to be aligned in the sky in a triangular formation, it's very possible they might have misidentified it as triangular due to the arrangement of lights rather than the actual shape of the blimp."
While Chris' insights help rule out many conventional explanations, he admitted that the complete silence and reports of the object making sudden, rapid movements remain hard to explain. "We can rule out commercial aircraft, military jets, and coastguard operations as the source of the sightings," he concluded. "But I don't think we'll ever know for sure exactly what people saw."
Although the Night of the Triangles hasn't gained the same widespread attention as the Broad Haven sightings in Pembrokeshire during the 1970s, the sheer number of witnesses arguably makes it a more credible case and one of the most intriguing UFO incidents in Welsh history. Despite the events of January 19, 1983 being observed from multiple locations, under clear weather conditions, and documented in numerous official reports, we are still no closer to understanding what really happened on that cold winter night in South Wales.
Timeline Of Confirmed UFO Sightings On January 19, 1983
This timeline provides approximate confirmed times of sightings based on research by the Swansea UFO Network, declassified MOD documents, newspaper reports, and BBC interviews.
South Wales Echo - January 20, 1983
What Carole Saw Over Cardiff... Police Promise A Serious Prove On Giant UFO Reports
Reports of a giant triangular object hovering over South Wales are today being investigated by police.
Descriptions of a sighting in Llandaff, Cardiff, match those made by six people in Swansea, including two detectives.
All say they encountered a giant triangular-shaped object with white lights along the border of the triangle. Some reports say it was larger than a jumbo jet and had a red light in the middle.
Mother of four Mrs Carole Griffiths, of Heol Penlan, Whitchurch, Cardiff, was being driven home from work at 7pm when she saw the object over the River Taff, close to Llandaff Rowing Club.
She said today: "My husband stopped the car we were so amazed. It looked like Concorde taking off but it was stationary in the sky. I normally pooh-pooh things like that, but it had to be a UFO."
Mrs Griffiths's husband, John, who works with her at the Air Call Ltd - a communications company in Cathedral Road - said he saw a similar object above Pentwyn earlier in the evening.
A passenger in the car, Dr. Nribendra Deb, who practises in Caerphilly, said the object seemed fixed in the sky "I don't know what I was looking at I have never seen anything like it before," he added.
South Wales police say they received a number of calls reporting UFO's between 6pm and 7pm yesterday.
The first sighting reported four flashing lights in the sky. Within minutes two detectives reported watching a silent object, triangular in shape, drift west over Swansea.
They said it was flying at 1,000 feet, with three lights, two of which were pulsating. It was followed by a smaller similar object. The RAF received two similar reports.
A police spokesman said the reports would be treated seriously. "At present we have not got a clue, but inquiries will be made," he commented.
South Wales Echo - January 21, 1983
UFOs? 'It's Not Us,' Says RAF Rescue Flight
Mystery is growing over reports of a low-flying object, that appears to be skirting the South Wales coast at nights.
And the strongest theory that the flashing lights belong to a patrolling Sea King helicopter, have been denied by the Sea King search and rescue flight at RAF Brawdy.
"Our helicopters have the standard aircraft lights, red, white and green, and up to seven very bright spotlights that could be shining at any one time," said a spokesman from the flight.
"But we haven't been flying after 4pm, so the possibility it was one of us is remote."
Sightings of the UFO have continued to flood in to South Wales Echo offices, after last night's publication of a sketch of the craft.
"I saw two massive lights, close together in the sky," said Mrs Jennifer Brotherston, aged 37, of Church Rise, Wenvoe. "Until we saw the front page of the Echo, I would have thought people would think I was some kind of a nut.
"It was standing still in the sky - that was what caught my attention. It seemed to be like an aircraft on its side."
Mr Robert Whitehouse, of Carter Place, Fairwater, described exactly the same phenomena, spotted at 7.15pm on Tuesday.
Moon
Mrs Vera Russell, of Sedgemore Rood, Llanrumney, said she saw three identical objects flying across the light of the moon, last night.
"It's not a word of a lie," she said. "An aeroplane went by at the same time, so we could tell how slowly they were going."
Mrs Russell's flying objects all followed the same course through the sky, and she was most struck by the size of them.
The Cardiff Weather Centre say they have not released any meteorological balloons recently, and air traffic controllers at Cardiff Airport have not reported anything unusual.
Police say they have passed on their reports to the Civil Aviation Authority, at West Drayton, and the Ministry of Defence will be investigating.
But meteors and air refuelling theories have also been dispelled by a longstanding member of the British UFO Research Association, Mr Bill Rich, who says that what he saw in the night sky did not answer either description.
"People get UFO happy," said the Swansea coastguard, "on clear nights, dust in the atmosphere causes refraction - even a planet can look like a lantern in the sky."
South Wales Evening Post - January 21, 1983
Sky-Watchers Agree On Mystery Lights: 'Meteors! Never' Say All The UFO Spotters
Whatever the nature of the UFOs which passed over Swansea and other parts of South Wales two days ago, sky-watchers are agreed on one thing. The objects were roughly triangular with flashing lights in each corner and moved silently and slowly across the sky.
And one Swansea woman has come up with her own artistic impression of what the UFOs which puzzled and astonished hundreds of people on Wednesday night looked like. Mrs. June Thomas. Pentrechwyth Road, of Bonymaen, Swansea, had just finished work as a cleaner at the Viscose plant at South Dock when she saw the mystery objects.
Mrs. Thomas said today she discounted theories put forward by Swansea Coastguards that the lights she saw in the sky were meteorites burning up as they entered the earth's atmosphere.
"What I saw was two objects, very big objects, moving across the sky slowly and without any noise." she said.
"Call them flying saucers if you will, but they were definitely not planes or meteorites."
Another UFO spotter, Mr. Peter Trotman, of Bryncelyn Road, Newton, Mumbles, said he was astonished to hear the claim that the sighting was meteorites.
And Mr. Kenneth Needles, of Verdi Road, Port Talbot, said he was also sure the UFOs were objects of some kind.
Mr. Needles, who was in the RAF during the war, said: "To be honest, I have no idea what the UFOs were, but they can't have been aircraft."
An RAF spokesman at the Ministry of Defence in London said he had not yet received any official reports of the sightings.
He said: "When we do get official reports through we will investigate the matter. It takes time to check flight plans, but my initial response would be to say the sighting was of aircraft flying in formation."
This theory, however, was dismissed by yet another UFO spotter. Mr. John Owen, of St. Catherine's Road. Bagian, who saw the lights in the sky above Porthcawl. He said: "What I saw was about 600 feet from the ground, huge in size and did not have any engine noise. not like any civil or military aircraft I know. Besides, it was only moving at about 30 mph far too slow for an aircraft."
"I cannot really say what it was ... it was certainly phenomenal."
Wednesday night's sighting, which occurred at a time when air traffic controllers at RAF Brawdy and Cardiff-Wales Airport reported no unusual aircraft flying over the area, was accompanied by one unusual event.
Electricity supplies to several hundred people in the Kittle and Bishopston area were cut off for a short while, but an electricity board spokesman said the black out was due to a temporary fault, probably caused by a branch hitting an overhead power line.
South Wales Echo - January 23, 1983
That Triangle Is No 'Plane' - Expert
The mysterious flying triangle that has been haunting South Wales skies this week, could not be an aircraft known to British aviation, according to a former RAF aircraft engineer.
Mr Joe Toland, aged 40, an engineer with the RAF for 15 years, was coaching Llantwit Major under 12's soccer team when he saw the object.
"We stopped playing to watch it," he said. "I couldn't fathom out why the lights were so far apart. It was close perhaps 600-1,000 feet up."
"It must have been 300 feet across, so it could not be an aircraft. The thing I really don't understand is that it made no noise."
Mr Toland, of Ham Lane East, Llantwit Major, has applied all his experience in aviation to solve the mystery.
Mr Toland who is now an insurance agent, at first thought that what he was seeing was an aeroplane being refuelled mid-flight. But he admitted this operation was never done over, built-up areas, and two aircraft would create a lot of noise.
"The lights were not usual aircraft lights, though it was in the flight path from Rhoose Air port," he said.
UFO expert Mr Bill Rich, aged 36, of Llandough Castle Flats, Liandough, is convinced the angle is a visitor from space.
"I have spent an awful lot of time looking at stars ever since I spotted a very strange UFO in Australia," he said.
"It most definitely is not a meteor as some people have claimed - I saw plenty of meteoric activity in Australia, and this was nothing like it."
"I am in the process of writing a book on sightings in Wales - I've been making notes for about a year now. I wouldn't say I'm a UFO freak, my interest is mainly scientific."
Mr Rich, who is an artist, watched the object fly past his house last Wednesday night.
"What they are doing. who knows?" he said. "We have got to take this seriously."
"One imagines they are taking samples from a fertile earth while it is still fertile."
"There have been a lot of close encounters of the third nature in Wales. I believe they will soon make themselves known to us."
South Wales Echo - January 27, 1983
Support For UFO Spotters
On the evening that the large triangular object was seen in the sky over Cardiff my son and I also observed it from home, passing in a westerly direction towards the channel.
Furthermore, a little later we observed other lights which were pulsating but stationary.
In view of the many Gwent sightings reported in the Echo between March and November of last year one imagines a large part of Wales yet again to be in the grip of a UFO flap.
With due respect to the police, there is very little they can do, apart from pass on all information to voluntary investigative groups such as the British Unidentified Flying Object Research Association.
These organisations, log, file and thoroughly investigate all details of the phenomena of which they are informed. Given the facts relating to the validity of the UFO, the Government must show more positive interest in the subject and perhaps help finance these dedicated groups, who all operate (in this country) by donations and subscriptions only.
Sunday Mirror - February 20, 1983
Quick-Draw Kids Track A UFO
An amazing UFO sighting by more than 200 people is being investigated.
Among those who spotted the "flying saucer" along a 40-mile stretch of South Wales coastline were two policemen, a class of schoolchildren and a football team.
The sighting-over a one-hour period is one of the best-witnessed ever.
First to spot the huge, triangular-shaped craft were 22 pupils at Cardiff's Eglwys Wen primary school.
They told their teacher, Helen Williams, who was astounded when the children later produced near identical drawings.
Twenty miles west, at Llantwit Major, football coach Joe Toland and a team of boys also got a good view of the UFO.
And at Swansea, detectives Mike Troake and Gethin Humphreys could hardly believe their eyes when the craft glided slowly overhead.
Sgt Troake, 42, said last week: "I'm used to seeing aircraft in the sky but this was massive - much bigger than a plane."
"There was a large main cluster of lights at the front, shaped a bit like a Zeppelin, followed by a triangular group of lights."
"They were moving gracefully across the sky about 1,000 ft up."
The two officers did not enter an official report for fear of ridicule from sceptical colleagues.
Ian Mrzygold, of the UFO Research Association Association, said: "Simple lights in the sky are easy to explain away, but this was a gigantic solid structure."
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