The craft Gibson saw was identical to so many of the Flying Triangles that Pope and his colleagues investigated.
The Revealing Truth of Ufos, Secret Aircraft, Cover-Ups & Conspiracies: Area 51
“[He] had a night vision scope indoors and he returned with this a few minutes later. He then viewed the aircraft again. He saw the helicopter clearly, as it was illuminated by the flashing strobe and navigation lights. He described it as being similar to the Airwolf from the TV series. “He then switched on the infrared beam and immediately noticed that there was a completely blacked out, triangular craft adjacent to the helicopter. ‘I couldn’t believe my eyes!’ he commented.
The triangle, which was a similar size to the helicopter, reflected light from the strobe/navigation lights and appeared to have no visible means of support in the hovering mode (no noise was heard). He began to approach the two hovering craft, while looking through his night scope. “It is a foregone conclusion that the helicopter was equipped with night vision equipment, because as [he] approached, the helicopter suddenly moved away at an incredible rate of knots. It disappeared like a rocket. The triangle remained for a moment and then moved away and out of sight!” In this particular instance, the presence of an apparent military helicopter in close proximity to the UFO suggests the strong possibility that the Flying Triangle was some form of wholly terrestrial aircraft undergoing secret trials. Aurora? A black helicopter developed at Area 51? Very possibly, and things didn’t end there.
In March 1997, the United Kingdom’s Independent newspaper ran an article titled “Secret US spyplane crash may be kept under wraps.” In part, it stated: “A top-secret United States spyplane which flies on the edge of space at five times the speed of sound crashed at the British experimental airbase at Boscombe Down, Hampshire, in September 1994, according to a report in a leading military aviation journal.
The SAS [Special Air Service], the report said, was scrambled to throw a cordon round the wreckage, which was flown back to the US two days later. The hypersonic reconnaissance aircraft, called Astra or Aurora, is believed to have been developed in the 1980s as a secret US government ‘black program.’” The explanation, from British officials, that the mysterious craft was nothing stranger than a Tornado aircraft has been met with rolling eyes and shaking heads, particularly since the Tornado in question actually came down in August 1994 and not late one night in September of that year. National Archives papers on the affair state the following: “The only flying that took place that night was the launch of two Royal Navy Sea King helicopters in support of an exercise.
Claims that members of the public were turned away by police roadblocks may have arisen from some confusion over dates. On August 12, 1994 a Tornado participating in a trial made an emergency landing there after the decoy target under trial failed to jettison. The Tornado landed with a trailing 375ft steel cable and, for safety reasons, roads close to Boscombe Down were closed while the aircraft passed overhead. We are aware of press reports regarding an aircraft known as ‘Aurora’. The Ministry of Defense has no knowledge of any U.S. aircraft with this designation operating in UK airspace. The existence of such a program would, in any case, be a matter for the US Government to confirm.”
So much for the official story. Let’s now take a look at the unofficial version. It was around 11:00 P.M. on September 26, 1994, when a small, twin- tailed aircraft crash-landed onto the lengthy runway at Boscombe Down, which is situated in the English county of Wiltshire. At around the time of the incident, a number of aviation enthusiasts were listening in on air-band radios and were aware that something untoward had taken place.
The following day, several of those same enthusiasts drove to the installation—which is near the A303 road and not at all far from Stonehenge— and were apprehended by local police, who had set up roadblocks to keep away prying eyes. Before being ushered away, however, a number of people succeeded in catching sight of a disabled aircraft. It was situated at the end of the runway and, aside from its twin-tail fins, was completely covered over by tarpaulins.
Air Force Monthly magazine was soon on the trail of the truth
In the November 1994 issue of the magazine, investigative writers noted that in the wake of the crash, both a Boeing 757 and a C-5 Galaxy arrived at Boscombe Down. The story continued that the secret plane was loaded aboard the Galaxy and flown to “Air Force plant 42 at Palmdale, California.” Air Force Monthly suggested that the aircraft “was a TR-3A, the existence of which the U.S.
Government has yet to officially acknowledge.” The subsonic, stealth TR-3A— also referred to as the Black Manta—remains an enigma since its existence has never been officially confirmed.
The account of the crash at Boscombe Down is made all the more intriguing by a story that was published in the United Kingdom’s Salisbury Times newspaper on August 23, 1994—just about a month before all hell broke loose at Boscombe Down. The location: the aforementioned A303 road. The article states: “A green flying saucer hovered beside the A303 road at Deptford last week—according to a lorry driver who rushed to Salisbury police station in the early hours of the morning. The man banged on the station door in Wilton Road at 1:30 A.M. on Thursday after spotting the saucer suspended in mid-air. ‘He was 100 per cent convinced it was a UFO,’ said Inspector Andy Shearing.
The man said it was bright green and shaped like a triangle with rounded corners. It also had green and white flashing lights. Other drivers had seen it and were flashing their car lights at him. A patrol car took the driver back to the spot but there was no trace of the flying saucer. Inspector Shearing said police had been alerted about similar sightings in the same area in the past.”
Although the Salisbury Times called the object a “flying saucer,” the description of it being “shaped like a triangle with rounded corners” sounds very much like the TR-3A or the Aurora. It’s also a near-perfect description of equally unidentified aircraft that have become known within ufology as Flying Triangles, but here’s the most important issue: the witness reported that the object he saw was “suspended in mid-air.” This is particularly fascinating, as rumors have been longstanding that the TR-3A has hovering capabilities.
Is it feasible that the aircraft seen hovering beside the A303 in the early hours of an August 1994 morning was the very same one that came crashing down on the runway at nearby Boscombe Down a month later? I would say yes, it’s extremely feasible. Today, more than two decades later, the events at Boscombe Down remain shrouded in mystery and secrecy.