Goodrich states that February 2, 1996, he and an officer, whom I will not identify here, observed a loose formation of five triangular-shaped objects flying above Great Falls, Montana, which is located just west of Malmstrom. At the time of the sighting, both had been working at the Missile Roll Transfer Building, a remote site located some miles from the main base.
When first sighted, the objects were about 75-degrees above the horizon. They made no sound that the two men could discern, and left no contrails. Due to distance and glare, no surface detail was visible on any of the craft. Goodrich noted that the objects flew in unison, moving slowly from north to south. On two occasions, all five appeared motionless for 10-15 seconds. After the second hover, the objects suddenly accelerated, made a sweeping arc to the southwest, and soon disappeared over the horizon.
Goodrich estimated the objects’ altitude to be 15-20,000 feet. This guess was based, in part, on statements made to him by personnel working at Malmstrom’s air traffic control tower. After contacting them, he had been told that nothing out of the ordinary had been detected on radar at the time of the sighting—but was also told that the tower didn’t track aircraft above 10,000 feet. Immediately after contacting the base’s air traffic control tower, Goodrich called Great Falls International Airport. The controllers there also denied tracking unknown aircraft at the time of his sighting.
Given that Goodrich reported the UFOs’ shape to be triangular, some skeptics might say that he and the officer had merely observed a flight of F-117A “stealth” fighter-bombers. Due to its unique design, an airborne F-117A can appear, from certain angles, to be nearly triangular. Moreover, the aircraft’s stealth capability would explain why the flight had not been tracked on radar.
However, because Goodrich is certain that he and the officer had twice observed all five objects briefly hovering, this prosaic proposal would seem an unlikely solution. The F-117A is an amazing aircraft, but it can not remain motionless in the air. Furthermore, Goodrich described the UFOs as being bright white in color and occasionally exhibiting glare as their position varied in relation to the sun. An F-117A is painted flat black and appears dark against the sky, under all lighting and atmospheric conditions.
Jeff included two hand-drawn diagrams of the objects in his report about the sighting. The first one depicts their positions relative to one another in the sky. The second illustrates each object’s shape—an isosceles triangle—with two sides of equal length. The third, shorter side was on the trailing edge of each object as it flew.
I asked Goodrich if he could determine whether the UFOs had flown or hovered over ICBM facilities at any time during the sighting. He replied that after the objects turned southwest, and left the city limits, they would have briefly passed over the India Flight missile field. However, he said that it did not appear that they had lingered in that vicinity. Instead, they continued to move steadily away, and eventually faded from view. (It should also be noted that when the objects approached Great Falls, they had to have flown over other missile fields located north of the city, however, I am not aware of any information currently available in the public domain to suggest a close-proximity incident at any ICBM LCF or LF, relating to the sighting.)