Two witnesses watched a large, noiseless triangular object hang motionless above their vehicle at an estimated 500 feet or less — then vanish without trace within seconds.
At around 6:15 PM on February 7, 2026 — approximately 40 minutes after sunset — a woman identified by NUFORC investigator James Clarkson only as "M" and her fiancé were driving on old County Road 178 near Byhalia, Marshall County, Mississippi, heading to collect her mother from a care facility. The road runs parallel to Highway 78, through flat, semi-rural terrain that had recently been cleared of trees for development.
Her fiancé noticed a very bright light ahead and above the road and leaned forward to look. As the couple drove closer, the light grew in intensity. The witness rolled down her window. Directly above their car, at an estimated altitude of 500 feet or less, was a large triangular craft hovering completely stationary. Three large, intensely bright lights were positioned at each corner of the underside. The object made no sound. It bore no visible markings, seams, wings, or propulsion of any kind. Its surface was a dark, flat grey — described by the witness as absorbing rather than reflecting light, "like a giant piece of black construction paper," and elsewhere as "a void of colour."
The witness screamed at her fiancé to stop the car. He instead turned the vehicle around via a side road. By the time she opened the moonroof and climbed onto the roof of their Honda SUV, the object had vanished entirely. No sound of departure was heard. The surrounding area — flat, open, with long sightlines — showed no sign of the craft in any direction.
Witness location photo — the area near old County Road 178 where the sighting occurred. Source: NUFORC / S196043
Second location photo submitted by the witness to assist investigators in pinpointing the encounter site. Source: NUFORC / S196043
NUFORC investigator James Clarkson conducted a telephone interview with the witness on February 28. He described her as "highly articulate and credible." To estimate the object's size, he cross-referenced the witness's description against Google Maps imagery of a local restaurant she identified — Sweetpea's in Olive Branch — concluding the craft was roughly 80–90 feet on its longest side. The 911 emergency centre for Marshall County, contacted on March 10, reported no other calls relating to the incident.
The black triangle is one of the most consistently reported UAP shapes in the modern record. Sightings follow a remarkably stable pattern across decades and continents: large, dark, triangular craft, silent at low altitude, lights at the vertices, capable of hovering motionlessly before departing at speed with no audible signature. The phenomenon came to international attention during the Belgian UFO wave of 1989–90, when over 13,500 witnesses — including police officers and military personnel — reported an identical craft, prompting the Belgian Air Force to scramble F-16 fighters in a live intercept attempt. Radar lock was achieved and lost as the object accelerated beyond known aircraft performance. The case was never officially explained. Similar encounters have since been documented over Illinois (2000), Phoenix (1997), Stephenville, Texas (2008), and across the UK, where the Ministry of Defence addressed the phenomenon in its classified Project Condign report. Whether the objects represent classified military technology, something else entirely, or some combination of both remains, as of 2026, an open question.
Related — Stranger Times
Belgium's Black Triangles: The UFO Wave That Forced an Air Force to Act — Case File. The 1989–90 Belgian wave involved 13,500+ witnesses describing an almost identical craft. Belgian Air Force F-16s scrambled. Case remains officially unresolved. Case File Belgian forest witness reports silent hovering black triangular craft — A 2020 MUFON-logged encounter near NATO's Kleine Brogel base: same morphology, same silence, same sudden disappearance. News Black Triangles (UFO) — full Stranger Times tag index Tag Source: National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) — nuforc.org/sighting/?id=196043
