Within Rhode Island UFOs
The Rhode Island UFO That Was Probably A Banner
A strange shoreline object became a useful lesson after local checks pointed to a banner-towing aircraft near Westerly Airport.
On this page
- What the witness first saw in 2012
- How airport checks changed the case
- Why solved cases matter in UFO history
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Introduction
The 2012 Rhode Island banner-plane case is a small but valuable solved UFO story. A witness on Block Island saw a strange, shape-changing object moving along the distant shoreline on a clear September Sunday. At first it looked like a large parallelogram-shaped craft with no visible wings, engine, tow line, or obvious aircraft nearby. The later explanation was much more ordinary: it was probably a large advertising banner being towed by a small plane operating near the Westerly shoreline. The case matters because it shows how a sincere, careful observer can see something genuinely puzzling, take a photograph, make reasonable estimates, and still be misled by distance, scale, angle, and attention. In Rhode Island’s UFO history, it is not important because it is mysterious. It is important because it demonstrates how a mystery can be solved without dismissing the witness or exaggerating the claim. [Skeptical Inquirer]skepticalinquirer.orgSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical InquirerSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical Inquirer [2warbirdexperience.info]warbirdexperience.infoWarbird ExperienceWelcome…
What the witness first saw in 2012
The sighting took place in September 2012, when Chip Taylor, writing later for Skeptical Inquirer, was on Block Island during a ham radio contest. The setting matters. Block Island sits off the Rhode Island mainland, and the observer was on an open roof deck with binoculars, watching a busy coastal scene that included small aircraft, sailboats, birds and even an advertising blimp between Narragansett and Newport. In other words, this was not a night-time flash seen for a second. It was a daylight coastal observation made by someone already paying close attention to the sky. [Skeptical Inquirer]skepticalinquirer.orgSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical InquirerSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical Inquirer
Through binoculars, Taylor saw what appeared to be a slow-moving object flying parallel to the distant shore. He described it as a parallelogram-shaped “craft or thing”, too far away to see clearly without binoculars. What made it unusual was not just its shape, but the absence of visible aviation clues: no obvious wings, no motor, and no apparent aircraft towing it. It also seemed to change shape, at times looking almost square and at other times more cigar-like, getting longer or shorter as he watched. [Skeptical Inquirer]skepticalinquirer.orgSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical InquirerSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical Inquirer
That is exactly the sort of detail that can make a UFO report sound stronger than it really is. The witness was not merely saying “I saw a light.” He had a direction, a location, binoculars, a photograph, a rough track, a duration of several minutes, and a remembered behaviour: a slow transit followed by a steep dive or drop behind low hills. At first glance, those details appear to narrow the possibilities. In practice, they created a more complicated problem, because each estimate depended heavily on how far away the object really was and whether the observer had correctly understood what part of the scene he was looking at. [Skeptical Inquirer]skepticalinquirer.orgSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical InquirerSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical Inquirer
How airport checks changed the case
The first important correction came from distance. Taylor initially guessed the shoreline was about eight or nine miles away, but later used Google Maps and the known direction from his ham-radio antenna set-up to refine the estimate. He concluded that the object was about fourteen miles away when first seen and at least eighteen miles away when it disappeared between nearer and farther hills. That change mattered: if the object was roughly twice as far away as first assumed, then it was also likely moving faster and could be larger than it first appeared. [Skeptical Inquirer]skepticalinquirer.orgSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical InquirerSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical Inquirer
The second correction came from the geography of the disappearance. When Taylor checked the area where the object seemed to descend behind the hills, he found that Westerly Airport was in that general direction. A call to the airport did not immediately solve the case. Based on his description of a large, slow, self-powered parallelogram-like object, the airport had no obvious match and suggested it might be some kind of military aircraft. Taylor then made calls to military installations in the wider area, but those enquiries did not produce a fitting explanation. [Skeptical Inquirer]skepticalinquirer.orgSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical InquirerSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical Inquirer
The decisive lead came only when he contacted Block Island Airport, which was much closer to his observing position. The airport manager reportedly suggested that the object was most likely a large advertising banner being towed by a small plane along the shoreline. That answer fit the case better than the earlier military-aircraft idea: the “object” was not a self-powered craft at all, but the banner, while the towing aircraft was too small or too visually separated to draw attention at that distance. [Skeptical Inquirer]skepticalinquirer.orgSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical InquirerSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical Inquirer
Later checks strengthened that explanation. Taylor reported that a banner-towing service did operate from Westerly Airport. Current airport and business listings support the broader setting: Westerly State Airport identifies Simmons Aviation among its airport tenants and describes it as involved in banner towing, aerial tours, vintage aircraft rides and flight training; Simmons’ own banner-towing information says it operates from Westerly Airport and serves the Connecticut and Rhode Island shoreline. [Westerly State Airport | WST]flywesterlyairport.comWesterly State Airport | WSTHomeWesterly State Airport | WST… [2warbirdexperience.info]warbirdexperience.infoWarbird ExperienceWelcome…
Why a banner could look like a strange craft
The banner explanation works because it accounts for the oddest parts of the sighting rather than ignoring them. A banner towed on a long line can be visually separated from the aircraft, especially when seen many miles away. If the observer is concentrating on the large rectangular or parallelogram-shaped banner, the small tow plane may not register at all. Taylor later re-examined his original photograph and reported that, under close inspection, a tiny dot a few pixels wide appeared ahead of the banner — consistent with the tow plane rather than with a self-contained craft. [Skeptical Inquirer]skepticalinquirer.orgSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical InquirerSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical Inquirer
The changing shape also becomes less mysterious. A banner is a flexible surface moving through changing air and viewed from changing angles. A turn, a slight yaw, a ripple, or a zigzagging tow path can make a rectangular banner appear to shorten, stretch, square up or become more cigar-like. Taylor specifically noted that banner planes can tow large banners, fly slowly, trail the banner at a considerable distance, and follow courses that would make the object’s apparent shape shift over time. [Skeptical Inquirer]skepticalinquirer.orgSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical InquirerSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical Inquirer
Banner-towing mechanics also explain why the final movement may have looked dramatic. Banner aircraft do not simply take off and land with the banner attached in the ordinary way. A GBH report on beach banner planes explains that banners are picked up after take-off using a hook and rope system, and that pilots drop the banner before landing rather than touching down with it still attached. The same report describes the banner hanging below the aircraft and notes that the pick-up and drop manoeuvres can look startling even when expected. [GBH]wgbh.orgGBHThe surprising way those beach plane banners get airborne | GBHGBHThe surprising way those beach plane banners get airborne | GBH
This is relevant to the Rhode Island case because the object appeared to descend or vanish near the Westerly Airport area. A banner being dropped or manoeuvred near the end of a coastal advertising flight would naturally look unlike a normal aircraft approach to someone who could not see the tow plane clearly. The witness’s “steep dive” impression therefore does not undermine the banner explanation; it is one of the features the explanation can plausibly absorb. [Skeptical Inquirer]skepticalinquirer.orgSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical InquirerSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical Inquirer
What makes this a good solved UFO case
This case is useful because it avoids two common mistakes in UFO discussion. The first mistake is to treat every unidentified sighting as evidence of something extraordinary. The second is to treat every witness as foolish once a mundane explanation appears. The 2012 banner-plane case shows a better middle path: the witness saw something genuinely puzzling, investigated it, corrected earlier assumptions, and accepted a conventional explanation when it accounted for the evidence.
The case also shows how a “good” witness can still be fooled. Taylor was experienced in observing sky phenomena and wrote that he had previously seen bright meteors, satellites, contrails, balloons, kites, birds, insects and aerial refuelling operations. That experience did not prevent the banner from looking anomalous at first. In fact, the sighting is memorable precisely because the observer was not credulous and still found the object strange. [Skeptical Inquirer]skepticalinquirer.orgSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical InquirerSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical Inquirer
For Rhode Island, the local setting is not incidental. The sighting depended on a coastal viewing geometry: Block Island as the observing point, the mainland shoreline as the distant backdrop, and Westerly Airport as the aviation clue that eventually changed the interpretation. Westerly State Airport’s own public information places it at 56 Airport Road in Westerly and lists two runways of about 4,010 feet and 3,960 feet, while also identifying banner towing among airport tenant activities. That makes the solved explanation geographically coherent, not merely generic. [Westerly State Airport | WST]flywesterlyairport.comWesterly State Airport | WSTHomeWesterly State Airport | WST…
The case also helps interpret other Rhode Island reports cautiously. The state’s coastal environment is full of objects that can look strange at a distance: small aircraft, boats, banners, blimps, drones, kites, birds, satellites and shoreline lights. The lesson is not that all Rhode Island UFO reports are banner planes. The lesson is that shoreline sightings often need local checks before anyone can judge them: airport activity, advertising flights, beach events, wind direction, line of sight, and whether a small tow aircraft could have been missed.
What the case does and does not prove
The banner-plane solution is strong, but it should be described carefully. It is best treated as a probable identification rather than a mathematically proven reconstruction. The public account does not provide a full flight log, air-traffic record, named pilot confirmation, exact time stamp, or original high-resolution image analysis in a formal report. The conclusion rests on a convergence of practical clues: the object’s shape, movement, location, the later sighting of a tiny dot ahead of the banner in the photo, the Block Island Airport manager’s explanation, and the confirmed presence of banner-towing activity from Westerly. [Skeptical Inquirer]skepticalinquirer.orgSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical InquirerSkeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical Inquirer [2warbirdexperience.info]warbirdexperience.infoWarbird ExperienceWelcome…
That is still enough to make it a meaningful solved case. UFO history often contains cases that remain “unidentified” because no one does the local checking, or because the surviving report is too thin to test. Here, the investigation moved beyond the first impression. It asked where the object was, what lay in that direction, who nearby would know about ordinary aviation activity, and whether a known local operation could reproduce the reported behaviour.
The case is also a warning about the phrase “no visible means of propulsion”. In many sightings, that phrase sounds decisive. In this case, it was misleading because the visible object was probably not the powered object. The aircraft was present but visually small, distant, separated from the banner, and easy to miss. A report can therefore be honest and accurate about what the witness noticed while still being wrong about the physical system involved.
Why solved cases matter in Rhode Island UFO history
Solved cases are not side notes in UFO history. They are part of the evidence base. They show what ordinary misidentifications look like before they are solved, and they help readers recognise why some reports remain unresolved for reasons that have more to do with missing data than with exotic technology. The 2012 banner-plane case is especially valuable because it began with details that might have sounded impressive in a short database entry: daylight sighting, binoculars, photograph, large shape, changing form, apparent descent, and a coastal flight path.
Its value is methodological. A serious Rhode Island UFO history should include famous claims, unresolved reports and weak anecdotes, but it should also include cases like this one because they teach the reader how investigation actually works. The turning point was not a secret file or a dramatic revelation. It was a mundane local question: who was flying near the shore that afternoon, and what ordinary activity would look strange from Block Island?
The answer — a banner-towing aircraft near Westerly — turns the case from a mystery into a practical lesson. Rhode Island’s UFO record is shaped by water, distance, shoreline aviation and busy summer skies. The 2012 banner-plane case shows how those same features can create a convincing illusion, and how patient follow-up can turn a “real UFO” in the literal sense of an unidentified flying object into a solved, instructive local case.
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Endnotes
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Source: warbirdexperience.info
Title: Warbird Experience
Link: https://www.warbirdexperience.info/banner.htmlSource snippet
Welcome...
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Source: flywesterlyairport.com
Title: Westerly State Airport | WSTHome
Link: https://flywesterlyairport.com/Source snippet
Westerly State Airport | WST...
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Source: wgbh.org
Title: GBHThe surprising way those beach plane banners get airborne | GBH
Link: https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2022-09-02/the-surprising-way-those-beach-plane-banners-get-airborne -
Source: skepticalinquirer.org
Title: Skeptical Inquirer Investigating the Rhode Island UFO | Skeptical Inquirer
Link: https://skepticalinquirer.org/newsletter/investigating-the-rhode-island-ufo/ -
Source: nuforc.org
Link: https://nuforc.org/sighting/?id=92130 -
Source: nuforc.org
Link: https://nuforc.org/sighting/?id=184775 -
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Westerly State Airport
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westerly_State_Airport -
Source: airnav.com
Title: Westerly State Airport
Link: https://www.airnav.com/airport/WST -
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Title: westerly airport
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Source: centreforaviation.com
Title: Westerly State Airport
Link: https://centreforaviation.com/data/profiles/airports/westerly-state-airport-wst
Additional References
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Source: youtube.com
Title: Is the Nimitz UFO Video Just a Plane?
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1oTg0kxzDsSource snippet
Banner plane ufo explanation CUBED UFO PUZZLES PILOT - “It Shouldn’t Be There” | The Proof Is Out There | #Shorts | History HISTORY...
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Source: ecfr.gov
Link: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-I/subchapter-F/part-91/subpart-D/section-91.311 -
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