In the summer of 2011, two former U.S. military personnel described a dark triangle with lights. Years later, the FBI created an image to illustrate their account.
The image may look like a record of what was in the sky. But it was built from two people’s words, not captured by a camera. A brief description became something viewers could examine for themselves.
From Description to Image
The incident they described took place in June or July 2011. According to the FBI record, both former military personnel witnessed it firsthand. Their description included a dark triangle and lights.
That is nearly all the record says about what the object looked like. It gives no details about the shape of the lights, the triangle’s size, or its movement. The image is therefore based on the account as given, not on additional visual details in the record.
What the FBI Created
In 2026, the FBI created a computer-generated image based on the description. It is an illustration: a digital rendering meant to give the account a visible form. The image was created in support of an FBI initiative.
There is a gap between the description and the image. The account says there was a dark triangle with lights; the image presents that idea visually. Viewers are seeing an artist’s interpretation of a report, not a photograph of the incident. It helps them picture what the two people meant, but adds no new evidence about what happened.
The FBI created the image years after the incident. It is based on a firsthand account but was produced later. Its caption is simple: a dark triangle with lights.
What Remains Unknown
The record does not say where the incident took place or identify what the witnesses saw. It also does not explain whether the image matches what they actually observed, and offers no conventional explanation for the incident.
What remains is an image built from a description: a dark triangle, lights, and a question the record does not answer.
