FBI-UAP-D030: FD-302 - "Large Triangle with Red Lights", Colorado Springs, October 2023

Source file: FBI-UAP-D030_FD-302_Large-Triangle-with-Red-Lights_2023.pdf Originating agency: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Document type: Form FD-302 (Rev. 5-8-10), interview of a U.S. Person Date: Interview conducted in October 2025 (exact day redacted) and drafted the same month; the incident occurred in October 2023 (exact day redacted) Classification: No legible classification marking on the released copy; names, precise locations and identifying details are redacted Page count: 3 VIRIN: 260807-O-D0360-1150 PURSUE Release: 5

Summary

This is an FBI FD-302 recording a single interview conducted in October 2025 with a U.S. Person. The composition of the interviewing team is worth noting: not one agent but three officials, comprising a Supervisory Special Agent, a Special Agent and a Task Force officer. That is a comparatively heavy configuration for an interview about a two-year-old sighting, and it is itself a data point.

The core account divides into three stages: the appearance of a dark-gray cloud that looked pixelated or distorted; the emergence of a solid black triangular object from that cloud, until an entire equilateral triangle was visible with a diffuse red light at each corner; and finally a maneuver combining sharp acceleration, a mirage-like wave effect, and a ninety-degree bank that the document explicitly notes was the opposite of the way a conventional aircraft banks in a turn.

The striking commonality between this case and FBI-UAP-D026 should be noted: a different witness, the same city, the same month, and a silent triangle with distortion effects. Neither document states that the two reports are connected, and the archive does not state it either.

Research Article

The document, the interview and the interviewing team

The form opens by recording the interview: "On October [redacted], 2025 [redacted] by Supervisory Special Agent [redacted], Special Agent (SA) [redacted], and Task Force [officer]," followed by the standard formula: "After being advised of the identity of the interviewing agents and the nature of the interview, [the interviewee] provided the following information."

The gap between event and interview is about two years, far shorter than in the companion document FBI-UAP-D028, where some fourteen years elapsed, and the memory therefore carries more weight here.

The first paragraph of the body does not concern the incident but the witness's background: he "frequently watches aircraft, military, commercial and civilian fly in the airspace above and around Colorado Springs." Such an introduction is not incidental on an FD-302; it establishes a baseline, a witness with prior familiarity with what the sky over that area is supposed to look like. Colorado Springs is not a random city in this context, being home to major defense and aviation installations.

The cloud: the start of the sighting

The incident is placed "On October [redacted], 2023 between 8-9:30PM." The interviewee walked over to a co-worker, whose name is redacted, "and began looking up, admiring the stars on a clear night."

The sequence begins with a distraction: he noticed a very bright star and watched it for about five to ten seconds, and then "he noticed movement in his left peripheral vision."

What he saw when he turned his head is the most unusual detail in the document: "[He] saw what appeared to be a dark-gray colored cloud phasing into his sight. The cloud was stationary in the sky, and [he] stated it looked very strange, as if it was pixelated or distorted in some other manner." The word "pixelated" stands out: it is twenty-first century vocabulary with no counterpart in historical UAP reporting, and it describes a visual phenomenon the witness struggles to classify. The cloud is not described as a natural cloud but as something that looked wrong, and it was stationary.

The triangle: dimensions, lights and altitude estimate

The object came out of the cloud, and the emergence is described in careful stages. First a single point: "he saw a constant, diffuse red light on the bottom front point of a solid black triangular shaped object coming out of the cloud towards the south, southeast." Then the widening: "The object behind the point became wider and larger as it exited the cloud until [he] saw the entire equilateral triangular object with a red light in each of the three corners."

The size estimates rest on local reference points, as in document D028: "[He] estimated the triangle UAP was very large and could have been as large as the parking lot in which he was standing. He estimated the UAP was the equivalent of 3-5 stories in thickness." Alongside these he also gives an angular measurement, which is the analytically most useful figure available: "at arm's length, each of the three lights on the triangle UAP was the size of a fingernail."

The initial motion was "south and slightly east at a steady speed comparable to a helicopter," and on altitude the witness again leans on his experience as an aircraft watcher: three thousand to five thousand feet, "comparable to small civilian aircraft in training flights."

The acceleration, the waves and the inverted bank

The third stage is the heart of the document. First the change of speed: "It then almost instantaneously accelerated to possibly Mach 1 or 2 and turned slightly, heading directly south or slightly southwest." It should be remembered that this is a ground observer's visual estimate rather than a measurement, and the document does not present it as a measurement.

Alongside the acceleration comes an optical description: "[He] noticed there appeared to be waves surrounding and radiating from the object," and the comparison he chooses is concrete: "He compared the waves to the mirage effect that can be observed when you look down a hot road into the distance." This describes optical distortion around the object, not light emitted from it.

Three negatives are explicitly recorded: "[He] did not hear the object make any noise, could not see any form of propulsion, and did not smell anything out of the ordinary." The absence of noise is especially pointed given the estimated altitude, and it stands in direct contrast to the pulsing hum recorded in FBI-UAP-D028.

Then the most unusual maneuver: "As the object moved, it abruptly banked 90 degrees on its left side with its three lights still visible while veering towards the right, and then it quickly banked back down to level flight."

Here the document adds one interpretive line, and it deserves exact quotation because it is the only technical claim on the form: "The banking motion was opposite of a conventional aircraft would bank in the direction it was turning." The phrasing in the original is ungrammatical, and it is reproduced here as written, but its meaning is clear: a conventional aircraft banks its wing toward the side it is turning to, whereas this object banked left while veering right. The bank, in other words, did not supply the aerodynamic force for the turn but was oriented opposite to it. This is the most consequential detail in the document, because it is not a description of a shape or a light but of a relationship between motions, and because it contradicts the way a winged aircraft works.

After the sighting: the vanished cloud and the phone call

The close adds two details. The first concerns the cloud: the witness lost sight of the object as it passed over a location whose name is redacted, to the south, and then "looked back to where it originally came into view and noticed that the dark-gray cloud had disappeared." The cloud appeared before the object and vanished after it, and the document offers no explanation for this and does not attempt one.

The second detail concerns communications: "He called his wife about 60 seconds later to tell her about the event, and she said that his voice sounded robotic, as if there was electronic interference occurring with the call." The document records that his cell phone service provider was [redacted].

Caution is warranted here. This is reported at second hand, from the interviewee's wife, who is not interviewed in this document, and interference on a cellular call is common and requires no unusual explanation. That said, the interviewing team took the trouble to establish the carrier, which suggests the Bureau considered a technical check. The results of any such check, if one was made, are not in the document.

The Colorado Springs connection: FBI-UAP-D026

The coincidence should be stated explicitly. Two separate FD-302s in this collection record sightings in Colorado Springs in October 2023: this one, and FBI-UAP-D026, which records a January 2026 interview with a former Department of War employee. The two witnesses are not the same person, and both accounts involve a silent triangular object and visual distortion effects. The accompanying renderings carry similar titles as well: "Dark Translucent Triangle" for FBI-UAP-D027 and "Large Triangle with Red Lights" for FBI-UAP-D031.

It is important to say what the documents do not say: neither form states that the reports are connected, neither cross-references the other, and neither indicates whether this was one incident observed from two locations. The agency's official descriptions do not link them either. The archive presents the coincidence as a fact about the collection, not as a conclusion.

Significance

This is among the stronger FD-302 reports in this release, though not among the strongest documents in the collection as a whole, and its score reflects that balance. It rests entirely on a single eyewitness: there is no radar data, no visual documentation, and no corroboration from the co-worker who stood beside him and who is not interviewed in this document. Against that, it contains three kinds of detail that many other testimonial documents lack.

The first is the witness's baseline: a man who routinely watches air traffic over an area with a dense military presence, and who can offer an estimated altitude by comparison with small civilian training aircraft. The second is the quality of the physical description: an angular measurement of the light size in terms of a fingernail at arm's length, a thickness estimate in stories, a speed compared first to a helicopter and then to Mach 1 or 2, and three explicit negatives covering noise, propulsion and smell. The third, and most consequential, is the inverted bank: a body rolling one way while turning the other does not fit the aerodynamics of a winged aircraft, and it is the kind of detail that separates a report about a shape in the sky from a report about behavior.

The limits of the document should nonetheless be restated: it is an interview record, not an investigation and not an assessment. The footer makes clear that it contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI. It records what one man said, and nothing more.

Key People

Locations

Incidents

Notable Quotes

"[The interviewee] frequently watches aircraft, military, commercial and civilian fly in the airspace above and around Colorado Springs." -- page 1

"[He] saw what appeared to be a dark-gray colored cloud phasing into his sight. The cloud was stationary in the sky, and [he] stated it looked very strange, as if it was pixelated or distorted in some other manner." -- pages 1 to 2

"He saw a constant, diffuse red light on the bottom front point of a solid black triangular shaped object coming out of the cloud towards the south, southeast." -- page 2

"The object behind the point became wider and larger as it exited the cloud until [he] saw the entire equilateral triangular object with a red light in each of the three corners." -- page 2

"[He] estimated the triangle UAP was very large and could have been as large as the parking lot in which he was standing. He estimated the UAP was the equivalent of 3-5 stories in thickness." -- page 2

"At arm's length, each of the three lights on the triangle UAP was the size of a fingernail." -- page 2

"Initially the UAP was moving south and slightly east at a steady speed comparable to a helicopter. [He] believed the UAP was at an altitude of 3000-5000 feet, comparable to small civilian aircraft in training flights." -- page 2

"It then almost instantaneously accelerated to possibly Mach 1 or 2 and turned slightly, heading directly south or slightly southwest." -- page 2

"[He] noticed there appeared to be waves surrounding and radiating from the object. He compared the waves to the mirage effect that can be observed when you look down a hot road into the distance." -- page 2

"[He] did not hear the object make any noise, could not see any form of propulsion, and did not smell anything out of the ordinary." -- page 2

"As the object moved, it abruptly banked 90 degrees on its left side with its three lights still visible while veering towards the right, and then it quickly banked back down to level flight. The banking motion was opposite of a conventional aircraft would bank in the direction it was turning." -- page 2

"[He] looked back to where it originally came into view and noticed that the dark-gray cloud had disappeared." -- page 2

"He called his wife about 60 seconds later to tell her about the event, and she said that his voice sounded robotic, as if there was electronic interference occurring with the call." -- page 2