Upper Heyford: a silent triangle over the golf course
On 26 December 1980, around 10 pm, F-111 pilot Dan 'Tanna' Isbell was driving home from a holiday nuclear-alert shift at RAF Upper Heyford, a nuclear-armed US base, when a silent triangular craft paced his car and stopped over the golf course about 150 ft away. He told no one, not even his wife, until he went public under his own name decades later. It falls between the two Rendlesham nights, at another US nuclear base in England, and a separate witness describes a large triangle at Upper Heyford the next night, with the same craft reported at RAF Croughton and RAF Bentwaters.
Evidence, in date order (1)
- 6 Nov 2024'Smith Jones' (pseudonymous witness)witnesslarge triangle at Upper Heyford the next night, also reported at Croughton and Bentwaters Earthfiles 108: Whose silent triangle craft hovered over three American RAF bases in December 1980?
How plausible · High
A named retired colonel describes firsthand a silent triangle pacing his car; the FBI interviewed him and has asked to release it, and the same week saw Rendlesham nearby.
- ●●Access Seen directly.
- ●●Cost of speaking Named retired colonel.
- ●●No gain sought Nothing sold.
- ●●Character record F-111 pilot and colonel.
- ●○Independent convergence A pseudonymous witness; Bentwaters the same week.
- ●○Fits the documented skeleton Rendlesham is documented.
Plausibility weighs how well an account fits where secrecy hides the documents by design, so missing records never count against it. Strength measures what is documented. Assessed 2026-10-23.
On the record
- Isbell's own named account: Safe Aerospace Podcast with Ryan Graves ('Air Force Test Pilot Saw a Silent Triangular Craft Over an English Golf Course, Dan Isbell Part I') and Lehto Files.
- Earthfiles episode 108 (Linda Moulton Howe, 6 November 2024): a witness describes a large triangle at Upper Heyford on 27 December 1980 with large forward windows and 'a large semi-circular glowing propulsion' underneath; the same craft reported at Croughton and Bentwaters.