Koi UFO Video 096 : Black triangle UFO (2007) - Jeff Wilson
[DEBUNKED] Koi UFO Video 096 appears to show a black triangle UFO with lights on its corners shining a laser or searchbeam down towards the ground.
This video was first uploaded to Youtube in September 2008 with the title "weird black triangle UFO with red lights with laser. Spaceship?". The accompanying text stated : "This is a video was on a cheap camera I found when Hiking in the Smokey Mountains. This is all that was on it."
The video gained considerable publicity when it was (incorrectly) associated online with entirely separate press reports in September 2008 that a senior garda officer (i.e. a policeman in the Republic of Ireland) had filmed a triangular shaped object with a camera phone at 10.35pm on 3 August 2008.
In fact, as detailed below, the video shows a large triangular model created by Jeff Wilson of Morristown (Tennessee) being lifted into the air in August 2007 by a large helium balloon as part of an annual "UFO contest" which was run by Joshua Warren to give researchers information on how to spot hoaxes.
Sections below:
2. Stories and claims relating to this video
3. The real background to this video
4. Relevant online discussions
1. The relevant video
Koi UFO Video 096 appears to show a black triangle UFO with lights on its corners shining a laser or searchbeam down towards the ground.
Screen shots from the video are included below for ease of identification:
2. Stories and claims relating to this video
This video was first uploaded to Youtube in September 2008 with the title "weird black triangle UFO with red lights with laser. Spaceship?". The accompanying text stated : "This is a video was on a cheap camera I found when Hiking in the Smokey Mountains. This is all that was on it."
The video gained considerable publicity when it was (incorrectly) associated online with entirely separate press reports in September 2008 that a senior garda officer (i.e. a policeman in the Republic of Ireland) had filmed a triangular shaped object with a camera phone at 10.35pm on 3 August 2008.
The garda officer footage was referred to in an article on the website of the Irish Independent newspaper, which stated that footage filmed on a camera phone at 10.35pm on 3 August 2008 near Dunboyne was played and replayed to over 70 delegates who attended the fifth Irish International UFO conference in Carrick-on-Shannon. The newspaper reported that the triangular shaped image, with lights at each point, which appeared to send a red laser-type light towards earth, "drew gasps of amazement from the 70 or so delegates who attended the world premiere of the footage". The newspaper stated that "a senior garda officer who was driving when he noticed the unusual light formation in the sky stopped to film it". Carl Nally, co-founder of UFO and Paranormal Research Ireland and joint author of 'Conspiracy of Silence', was reported as stating that "There is no footage like this in the world. It is the most amazing and spectacular I have ever seen". Mr Nally is reported to have later described the laser beam footage as the best footage on the planet and said it would be shown all over the world.
The Irish Independent newspaper's article did not provide any link to the relevant triangular image, but several UFO websites posted the Irish story together with a link to Koi UFO Video 096, such as the item below:
Once one UFO website made this mistaken connection, it appears that various other websites duplicated the mistake.
While this page is dedicated to Koi UFO Video 096, for anyone wondering the Irish police officer's footage is available online. It was eventually uploaded to the link below in May 2011 and appears to be remarkably similar to footage of Chinese lanterns. That upload was accompanied by the following description:
"This video footage is from Dunboyne, west of Dublin Airport in Ireland. It was taken by a police detective on his mobile phone on the 3rd of August 2008, at 22 45 local time. The triangle UFO captured on the video was one of 4 flying on a northeast heading. The video is slowed down and the laser type beam froze in time to show that the beam is actually shooting out of the craft. This is the only time in Ireland that a triangle UFO or any UFO has been filmed shooting out a laser type beam. This is the first time it has been shown anywhere outside of our UFO conferences. Carl Nally, Dermot Butler, UPRI".
3. The real background to this video
In fact, as detailed below, Koi UFO Video 096 shows a large triangular model created by Jeff Wilson of Morristown (Tennessee) being lifted into the air in August 2007 by a large helium balloon as part of an annual "UFO contest" which was run by Joshua Warren to give researchers information on how to spot hoaxes.
Jeff Wilson subsequently gave his model to Joshua Warren. Joshua Warren kindly confirmed to me in 2015 that the video does indeed show the Jeff Wilson "UFO". Joshua Warren stated that he "created, produced and hosted this event" and "narrated the spectacle as we played cosmic music in the background". Joshua Warren also kindly provided a photograph of him holding the actual craft (below).
The person that uploaded the video with a caption stating "This is a video was on a cheap camera I found when Hiking in the Smokey Mountains" eventually edited that description to refer to the relevant UFO Contest. The amended description stated the following:
"This is a fake UFO. (created by Jeff Wilson of Morristown, Tennessee) This was done to give researchers an information on how to spot hoaxes. see http://ufocontest.com/
and http://speakingofstrange.com/ for full details.
The craft was a large black triangle that was lifted in the air with a 14ft diameter advertising helium balloon.
it weighed about 10 pounds and as saw in the video it included 3 bright red leds light pods on each corner, a 200mw stage laser, 3 blue led's inside light defusing glass on the rear, and a 4 stage round Electroluminescent (also known as EL)light in the center.
It was about 400 feet in the air at night in the mountains outside Asheville, NC. There was stars out but they DID not show up on the video.
We put this video up to show people how sometimes videos can be deceiving.
This Video and the annual contest was discussed on Coast to Coast AM.
Joshua was on the show last night 10-11-08 and prior to the contest this past August Joshua and Jeff Wilson (the creator of this craft) were on discussing it.
Anyone interested in participating in the contest or watching it 1st hand next year should check out the website for more information.
It is just a coincidence that this craft in this video looked like the one that was reported in Ireland. This video was filmed in August of 2007."
Few of the people that have commented on this video (which has been seen 220,000 times as at March 2015) appear to have read that updated description. A screen shot is included below for ease of reference.
The UFO Contest website mentioned in the revised description of the video gives further details of the 2007 entries, including a photograph of Jeff Wilson's model in flight.
It appears that the revised description followed the discussion of the hoaxed footage by Joshua Warren (a UFO researcher that ran the annual contest for several years in order to study fake UFOs) on the Coast to Coast AM radio show in 2008 and the posting of relevant details on the website of "Shadowbox Enterprises" (of which Joshua Warren is the president).
Jeff Wilson uploaded longer footage of his model in flight (complete with the original soundtrack from the UFO Contest):
A video showing other entries in the 2007 UFO Contest can also be found online, which also included a photo of Jeff Wilson's craft (at around 2 minutes 9 seconds into that video).
4. Relevant online discussions
Relevant discussions on the AboveTopSecret.com forum include the following:
2008 (October) discussion entitled "Video of a Model that won a contest"
2012 (June) discussion entitled "BREAKING!!! Big Fake Triangufo or What!!??!!"
This video was also discussed in 2008 on the UFO Blogger website and several other websites.
