Were the lights over the Hudson River Valley really UFOs?
“It looked like a city of lights.”
Thousands claimed they saw the UFO
CASE DETAILS
Dennis Sant
The quiet beauty of New York’s Hudson River Valley is home to upscale professionals and retirees. They tend to be well-educated and cosmopolitan, hardly the type of people one would expect to be swept up by UFO fever. Yet, that’s exactly what happened to more than 5,000 residents between 1983 and 1986. Ultimately, the entire episode was largely dismissed as a hoax perpetrated by a group of local stunt pilots. However, to this day, many of the eyewitnesses maintain that what they saw could not have been a handful of airplanes.
Dennis Sant, a husband and father of five, had worked in local government for 17 years. He led a perfectly normal life. Then on March 17, 1983, Dennis’s home in Brewster, New York, was the site of an extraordinary event:
“It was a very large object. The structure of it was very dark gray, metallic, almost girder-type looking… The object seemed to be very silent. The lights were iridescent, bright, they stood out in the sky and three-dimension. It looked like a city of lights. It just hung in the sky, all brilliant colors… We followed the object around to the backyard. And at that point, a feeling of fright came upon me. Thoughts started to flood my mind, thoughts of the craft touching ground, thoughts of an encounter with an alien being. Thoughts of being abducted. All types of fearful thoughts started to enter into my mind.”
Officers radioed in about the UFO
But Dennis and his family were not the only ones mesmerized by the extraordinary light formation. A few miles away, traffic screeched to a halt on Interstate 84 as the mysterious object hovered overhead. The Hudson Valley sightings had only just begun.
One week later, Officer Andi Sadoff of the New Castle Police was on routine patrol when he, too, had an encounter:
“I was working a 4 PM to midnight tour and assigned to set up some radar to look for speeding cars and I looked up into the sky and saw a series of lights. And at first I thought it was a plane, it was quite a distance, quite far away, but it was, it was really quite large. As I recall, there were mostly white lights, but there were green lights also. It was alternating green and white lights. It approached my vehicle and it stopped and it seemed to hover. And I’m looking at this thing, thinking what is it? I wasn’t afraid. I was just amazed. I was in awe of it. I didn’t know what it was. The only thing that I recall the most is I was amazed that there was no noise. There was no humming. There was no engine, there was no sound. It was absolutely silent.”
Then just seconds later, the eerie silence was broken by another eyewitness report. At virtually the same time, Ed Burns, a computer engineer and senior manager for IBM, was driving home on the Taconic Parkway, 10 miles north of Officer Sadoff’s location:
“Out of nowhere, I got a lot of static on the radio. I thought maybe I was on the wrong number, and then I went over to turn the dial again and that’s when I looked up and saw this craft. It was a triangular ship. And the back had to be as large as a football field at least. And there was no noise.”
Many articles were written about sightings
Ed pulled off the highway and joined a group of motorists by the side of the road. According to Ed, they were all staring at the sky, seemingly dumbstruck:
“I’m not into astronomy… but what I had witnessed that night was not from this planet.”
The eyewitness reports indicated the object was slowly moving north over the Hudson River Valley. Officer Sadoff and at least 12 others saw it in New Castle. Ten minutes later, Ed Burns and at least 20 motorists, saw it near Millwood. Ten minutes after that, the phones began ringing off the hook in the police station at Yorktown. Officer William Wolf Jr. was the dispatcher on duty that night:
“Every line kept going, every single line, constantly answer the phone, another line would light up. I’d answer the next line and another one would line up. Got to the point… the county parkway stopped. The people were out in their cars. It was starting to get really crazy. I tried calling the cars to find out if they saw anything. And the only one that called… Kevin, said that he would stop in.”
Officer Kevin Soravilla arrived a few minutes later. He also saw the lights reported by dozens of Yorktown residents:
“The object was extremely large. I estimated it to be close to 300 to 400 yards wide. We stood out in front, facing to the north. And approximately about five minutes later… the object began to appear from the northern horizon.”
Although Officers Wolf and Soravilla were standing side by side in front of the Yorktown Police station, their accounts are entirely contradictory. Officer Soravilla was convinced that he saw a large object with a number of small lights:
“I would say approximately 16, 18 lights, running in a V formation, approximately 200 to 400 yards wide. I was standing between the lights to see any type of a solid structure where he may have basically been staring at the lights himself.”
But Officer Wolf had a completely different impression:
“They looked like airplanes to me, I said Kev… I live near an airport and I see these airplanes every day. So as they were coming over, he said well you can’t hear anything. I said listen, but then we started to hear a drone. It wasn’t one big solid unit. But if you looked at it for like a couple of minutes or even a fraction as it was coming over, I could see where some people would’ve gotten upset.”
Suddenly, the Hudson Valley sightings had taken a dramatic turn. It appeared that the UFOs were a hoax, nothing more than small aircraft flying in precise patterns. Anthony Capaldi was an air traffic control specialist at the time of the sightings. In the summer of 1983, he made an observation that seemed to settle the UFO controversy once and for all:
“The first time I observed the formation, it looked a little peculiar. And from our vantage point in the tower, they just appeared to be just one big light because they were flying in tight formation. I don’t think if this formation flew over an individual’s head at a thousand feet that there’s any way you could mistake it for anything but the formation flying, due to the sound of the aircraft engines. And I imagine that at a thousand feet, you could really determine that it’s aircraft.”
But not everyone agreed. Phillip Imbrogno, an author and UFO expert, spoke to several of the eyewitnesses:
“The UFO was surely seen before these hoaxster pilots began their night flights. After these hoaxsters began their night flights, people would call me up who had seen the UFO on previous dates and said well I saw something strange in the sky but it wasn’t the same thing that I saw a week before.”
A home video showing a light formation above Brewster, New York, was taken on June 10, 1984, by local resident Bob Pozzuoli. Phillip Imbrogno was convinced the footage showed an actual UFO:
“It has been looked at by a number of photographic experts who indicate that the movement of the object on the video seems to be one rigid object not individual objects. Plus there were hundreds and hundreds of witnesses who saw the UFO and said it was something strange. But the night that the airplanes were seen, there were also dozens of witnesses who said, in fact, that they did see airplanes.”
So what is the truth about the fantastic light formations in the sky above the Hudson River Valley? Were they aerial stunts performed by sophisticated pranksters? Or did the flying objects come from somewhere beyond the stars?
Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season five with Robert Stack and in season one with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.
Debra Ramos
It may have been 1983 or 1984, spring or summer time in the evening cause window was opened. Me and my brother were in the living room and we heard a loud humming sound coming from outside. We lived on the 7th floor in the Bronx River Park Towers, across Hudson River. We went to see where the humming was coming from and we seen what we thought was a plane or helicopter but too dark to see what it was. It had white probing lights circling the flying object. We just stared at it as it slowly passed our view. Seemed to be as high as the 15th or 20th floor, maybe higher. It’s hummed passed our view and disappeared. Don’t remember if anything was in the paper or not. It was a pretty cool experience to see a UFO!! We are not ALONE
Kyle Goodrich
Id like to have a Big enough telescope with a Camara and, I could take pictures of this thing if it comes back..And another wierd sight 3 years ago 2021 me and l, my neighbor was out back in the middle of the night watching two cats bout to fight on top of my house..they used to climb up there from the fence..well we’re setting there watching these cats a minute and some thing flashed white in the sky and it shot so fast across the sky if you’d blinked you would have second guessed your self what it was..Their is nothing we have technology wise that can take off that fast and not make a noise at all..what’s wierd was it was like their was dark matter covering this thing..you could look rite at the sky and you can see the dark spot is just a tint darker..almost like a dark black cloud when that thing flashed it was like a Camara flash and it shot North so fast I’d say it covered 5o Miles in a 1/4 or a second.Thats how fast it was..if you wasn’t looking rite at it you would miss it..And it definitely was not no shooting star this thing was inside our atmosphere and I’ve seen shooting starts their way slower than this object.
Linn
Driving north on Taconic by Yorktown, it was around 9:30pm, in Sept of 2021 when these bright lights caught my eye. I looked up. To my left & saw this massive v shape object very slowly moving over the trees. I couldn’t stop because of traffic but I kept looking to see what these lights were, doubting what I was seeing thinking they were as bright as stadium lights but this thing was moving…quietly…I did not doubt anymore. I still google to see if anyone else saw this.
Christopher Reece
I saw it. My family lives in Dutchess Park. My friends and I were out driving around doing nothing. I said look at that. It was big, moving slow with no sound. It was not small planes. It was a ufo….I will go to my grave saying that.
Christopher
Beth
In either 1983 or 1984 (I believe it was warm weather so probably summer) my mother and I were driving South on Route 9 approaching the Garrison Golf Course. It was dark out and probably about 9 pm. We saw a very large object in the sky right above the road. We pulled over on the right side of the road about 25 feet before the entrance to the golf course. We were looking at a very large object directly above the tree line and moving toward us very, very slowly. As it went over our heads the most incredible thing is that it was making only a very faint low mechanical hum noise but no real “sound” We estimated this object to be about the size of a football field. We were saying how could this thing be moving at such a slow speed directly over the trees and making virtually no sound.
I want to reiterate and make very clear that this object was just above the tree line- so it was very very close to us – nothing we know of could fly that low, that slow and make virtually no noise – this was absolutely NOT the planes flying in formation that started to show up after people started seeing the solid object.
My mother (who was a teacher in the local school district for about 20 yrs at the point) and was generally skeptical in nature ran to the right side of the road onto the grass on the golf course. She began waving her hands at this craft as it crawled ever so slowly above us and she was shouting “hey, u hoo” to it. This is the crazy part – when she did that the lights changed (I can’t remember exactly how and what colors changed) but it seemed to shine one particular part in her direction. I wouldn’t say it shined a light directly down on her but something with the lights definitely changed to her direction. I was 18 or 19 at the time, I yelled to her – asking if she was crazy and told her to get back in the car right now or I am leaving. She came back over to the car and we watched it move slowly away for quite a few minutes. When it got a good distance away it shot off super quickly out of sight. It was a V or boomerang shape but the middle between the V was not solid because when it was directly over our heads you could see the sky and stars between the V shape.
I knew of a friend’s sister and her husband who had described seeing something similar over their house in Somers so we drove over there that night because we just needed to talk about it to someone who could relate and wouldn’t think we were crazy. My mother is now 91 and last year I recorded her talking about what she remembered about that night. She recalled almost all the details as I remembered them too. It was something we have always shared that was life changing and will never forget.
Beth
Forgot to mention that it was a widened/opened “V”shaped. When it was directly over our heads we could see that there was nothing in the “middle” of the V part so it was a true V shaped object, i.e., we could see the sky between the two lines of the V.
Beth
In about 1984 (I believe it was warm weather so probably summer) my mother and I were driving South on Route 9 approaching the Garrison Golf Course. It was dark out and probably about 9 pm. We saw a very large object in the sky right above the road. We pulled over on the right side of the road about 25 feet before the entrance to the golf course. We were looking at a very large object directly above the tree line and moving toward us very, very slowly. As it went over our heads the most incredible thing is that it was making just a VERY faint low mechanical hum noise but no real “sound” We estimated this object to be about the size of a football field. We were saying how could this thing be moving at such a slow speed directly over the trees and making virtually no sound.
My mother (who was a teacher in the local school district for about 20 yrs at the point) and was generally skeptical in nature ran to the right side of the road onto the grass on the golf course. She began waving her hands at this craft as it crawled ever so slowly above us and she was shouting “hey, u hoo” to it. This is the crazy part – when she did that the lights changed (I can’t remember exactly how and what colors changed) but it seemed to shine one particular part in her direction. I wouldn’t say it shined a light directly down on her but something with the lights definitely changed to her direction. I was about 18 at the time, I yelled to her – asking if she was crazy and told her to get back in the car right now or I am leaving. She came back over to the car and we watched it move slowly away for quite a few minutes. When it got a good distance away it shot off super quickly out of sight.
I knew of a friend’s sister and her husband who had described seeing something similar over their house in Somers shortly before that so we drive over there because we just needed to talk about it to someone who could relate and wouldn’t thing we were crazy. Not something my mother would have normally ever done but we were just in such a state of awe/shock that we had to share it even that late at night. My mother is now 91 and last year I recorded her talking about what she remembered about that night. She recalled almost all the details as I remembered them too. It was something we shared that was life changing and we will never forget.
Beth
Sorry for the duplicate post everyone. If there is a moderator reading this you can delete this Nov 10th post if you are able. Thanks.
Debbie prisco
I saw the exact same thing over cross county In Yonkers and So did everyone else at The outdoor mall . It was on the front page of the herald statesman the next day as a government carrier ship
Kyle Goodrich
I seen the same thing me and, a friend Jan, 9th 2024 over Southern Ohio..It was the night the Northern lights were low and, the clouds were low..5 white lights flew over looks like small balls smaller than an air craft..Then I seen this object way off in the atmosphere it was green.
Well it started decending lower towards us..it got where it was at top of the clouds and this thing was probably 300 yards long and the back of it was at least 300 yards wide..it had green lights on the bottom of it..it went into a cloud and disappeared..Well me and my friend set there waiting for a couple mins for it to exit the cloud..Next thing you know we seen a jet heading straight for that cloud like they were gonna collide..and the object exits the clouds and that’s when we were actually able to make out exactly what this thing was completely..it had 11 green lights on the bottom side of it and it was huge bigger than any air craft any thing I’d ever seen in the sky..Compared to the jet it made it look small..Any how the object shot towards Kentucky in the direction the white lights went towards..And then next thing you know their was air force jets flying all over they sky’s..I called a couple friends to tell them about it..I was like go out side and look up in the sky and keep an.eye on it you might see some.crazy stuff..Well I seen the same craft the other night it usually is just setting in one spot way uo in space but you can definitely make it out cause it’s green.. but yea Jan 9th is the first time it’s ever did that..I’d say reason why was the way the clouds were so thick and low visibility was hard to see but we definitely seen it and it scared my buddy and he went home rite after.
Kenny
Debbie, we probably saw the same thing if this is you Debbie, I was with your brother yesterday. I told him about UFO story so I’m Bronx River Road not believe me I can’t believe I’m going through this list trying to find it and I see your name pop up.
Jose Ramon
I was at an overpass, on I-287, on Westchester Ave in White Plains and Silver Lake. (Harrison) line (before Exit 8)
I was working for AAA Roadside Service company, filling out reports and waiting for my next call.
The object suddely but slowly, came over the overpass and didn’t make a sound.
I stepped out of the vehicle and ran under it, as it came across the entire I-287.
It was about 300….or 400 yards long and about 200 yards wide.
It had large lights and although warm, it illuminated the ground around me.
The object looked similar to a gigantic blimp but metallic, massive and silent.
I’m now a Surgical Educator with 22 years of National Experience and Exposure….and have never shared this with anyone…
But this happened and it wasn’t a plane.
Jeff
We lived in Brewster from ’79 – ’83; one night, I was doing my social studies homework for the ’82 – ’83 school year at Brewster High and happened to look out the bay window. There were these three really bright white lights in triangle formation, somewhere between our house and Interstate 684. No other lights, just white ones at the points of a very large triangle. I observed them for a bit then went back to my homework; a few minutes later, I looked up again and they were still there. I continued alternating between my homework and looking out the window for I don’t know how long; the lights never appeared to move or change intensity until they weren’t there anymore.
KB
I was a kid that lived in Woodstock, NY, on Whitney Dr from 1984 – 1992. I don’t remember the precise year, but one summer night after the neighborhood kids and I were playing flashlight tag on our dark, unlit, backwoods street, I remember seeing what I first thought were fireflies…. Until I realized they were green globes on the tops of houses, while fireflies stay no more than 3-4 feet off the ground, and I’d never seen them in NY, only my grandpa’s farm in Ohio. We all wondered what they were, but then just sat down on my yard to chat for a while (hey… we were kids….). Shortly after that, we saw what we thought was bright car headlights coming around the bend and stopping just before we could see the actual car and lights. It stopped in front of my neighbor Peter’s house, which was weird because it was late at night and an extremely odd time for visitors. I asked Peter if he was expecting anyone, and he said no. We all got up to see who it was, but as soon as we got to the point where we’d be able to see the car past the trees, the lights went completely out, and there was no car in sight and absolutely nothing that could explain the lights. Any of them. I told this as my joke “UFO” story for years, until I read the numerous accounts like mine all up and down the Hudson valley. Now it’s for real.
Tony
That’s uncanny in terms of the circumstance of your sighting. In 1977, my friends and I were also running around after dark playing tag or just hanging out. This was on Watergate Drive in Amawalk. This was a time when those addresses were far enough out to have a “Rural Federal Delivery” designation. Anyway, my friend and I were on a hillside that overlooked a bog and a farm to the north in the distance. To the east was the Amawalk Reservoir. From a good distance, eight or nine orange orbs were “floating” southerly toward us. Being a kid, it was hard to estimate the altitude. Thinking back on it, I venture to guess they were about 1,000 feet or less. They were silent orange orbs that “floated” silently in a fixed formation, but with no discernable shape to the formation. It appeared that the orange orbs were the underbelly of a craft. It wasn’t just the orb. They floated overhead without a sound. To the east, over the water of the Amawalk Reservoir (which could barely be seen from that elevated vantage point) there appeared to be a much larger craft hovering. It seemed that these craft with the orange orbs were interacting with the larger craft. I distinctly remember my friend and I having quite a disagreement about what these things were. He insisted they were helicopters or something. I thought that was ridiculous because they made no sound. Either way, I recall him being rattled by the experience.
Shannon
I grew up in Dutchess County. In 1980 I was living in Amenia at Maplebrook School. One night I was walking my dog in the field out back. Suddenly a formation of massive wedge shaped objects with red and green lights on the underside flew overhead. I remember that I wasn’t scared, and how there was dead silence. My dog saw it too and he appeared to understand what they were. The craft stopped in place overhead for what seemed like a long time but was probably only a couple minutes. Then they sped off in the direction of the Taconic Mountains. The speed at which they moved was phenomenal. I am absolutely convinced that these objects were not of this Earth.
Team Phenomenon
Great information, thanks! We are Phenomenon – Your guide to the Mysterious and Unexplained
You can find us here: https://phenomenonmysteries.com
JD
I was at the Dutchess County Fair 85? and remember that something like this flew over
Cindy Brailey
Me too! Triangular shaped, silent and hugungous
Sheri Williams
I was driving south on the taconic from somers exit to Ossining FD where I volunteered on ambulance duty while going to Paramedic school in White Plains. It’s been so many years past but I saw this huge sky filling thing over the parkway. The immensity of it and no sound and closeness to the ground made me pull over on the shoulder, get out and stand there looking at it. I can’t remember if it was dusk or dark, but this giant triangular shape was black and blotted out the sky. It was way bigger than the highway lanes north and south. Other cars were pulling off and people walking around in groups or singly to view whatever this was. A football field or two couldn’t be a good measure. To me, it was almost horizon size. Not moving, no sound at all. I don’t remember if there were lights on it. It must’ve moved off because I drove to Ossining thinking whatever that was, it was crazy. I was intrigued but not frightened at all. The next day, my next door neighbor Gayle called me and she knew I was on the Taconic because her daughter Kimmie babysat my kids that night. Gayle worked for AT&T and had spotted a notice in the paperasking if you saw that thing, to call this number. It was a 800 number. Gayle decided to check out what that number was associated to and it was listed as being a number to a chinese laundry. At that time, only govmt had 800 numbers or ritzy places, so we were worried even about calling it. We didn’t. Gayle, by the way, was on her way home after work, and pulled off the taconic to watch this thing. So we both saw it about the place north and south lanes. I wish I could remember more, but raising 5 kids sort of burnt out my brain long term memory.
Sara Bugaighis
Hello!
I’m currently working on a documentary about UFO sightings in the Hudson Valley Flap and Westchester Boomerang. If you have any footage of your experiences and would be interested in being interviewed please reach out at sbugaighis@anomalyent.com
Thanks,
Sara
Audrey fredette
This happened to me and my family I was a baby at the time but was there at this sighting with my brother and parents. People think these events/sightings are fake but we know the truth. They can’t keep the truth quite! And we deserve to know the truth!
Tina
There are 5 or more red and white lights in the sky right now, Poughkeepsie, NY, and normally I only see one every single night. Maybe because Of Queen Elizabeth’s death. Who knows!
Eric D.
Hey my younger brother lives in poukeepsie , I’m just in the outskirts of the northern Pine Bush and Montgomery area right out amongst all the farm fields dead smack in the center of where the most constant activity has been here for decades , and for the last 5 or so years I’ve suddenly began seeing multiple UFOs in the skys almost quite literally every single damn night ever since. Just last night saw about a half dozen in 45 minutes of sky watching in my drive way , and just tonite in only about one hour and twenty minutes I had to have seen easily 20+ ufos, I was able to count no joke 8 of them all visible at rhe same time within just a roughly 2.5-3 mile diameter circle of the primary skies viewable from my drive way , no exaggeration , in fact seeing that many all at the same time is not at all even remotely rare as I commonly see that many at once at least through out the timespan of a very considerable amount of my pretty frequent sky watching sessions, in fact there’s been a good number of nights right up till most recently about 7-8 nights ago that I’ve been able to at a point during the night have counted at minimum 12 or more UFOs in the sky all at once. So if you count likely seeing a lot or possibly all of the same ufos each multiple times through each night as they make multiple repeat passes across my area and so if I were to count each pass of each ufo that I likely already saw make a few passes each night and was to count each pass as a separate ufo sighting then I technically could honestly say its not uncommon at all to have nights where I have had a few dozen sightings in just one night of spending a couple hours watching the skies it’s freaken absolutely bananas totally koo koo the level of activity that I see over here , and my sister whom I also live with I know sees them basically most time she simply goes outside at any point on just about any given night , as well I know there are a good number of other locals directly in this area who see these UFOs equally as frequently in just as great of numbers. And I know I’m not misidentifying what I am calling legit UFOs because not only have I had a good few really really wild day time ufo sightings but there are a significant number of occasions in where I start seeing them at dusk or twilight when it’s still light out enough to quite easily be able to not just see wild numerous lights in the skies but the actual physical structure , shape and color of all the types of these ufos , I also fairly frequently am able to see the shape and outline of the UFOs in total pitch black darkness , due to the night sky sometimes when totally clear being brighter than the color of the bodies of the craft so the much darker jet black ufo craft stick out , obviously I cant see them as detailed or well in those occasions, not as well as my twilight much brighter skies sightings but can still regardless clearly see their shape and that without any doubt they are far from just wild looking numerous anomylous bright lights in the skies when I am able to clearly see the structure or physical body of the craft the lights are attached to , so yeah I know what im seeing and I’m not misidentifying normal planes , they are without a shadow of a doubt UFOs and yes I am seeing them as numerous and frequently as I’ve stated which I know a lot of people will read and dismiss as non sense and or the ravings of a crazy person but that is fine , before I started seeing these things constantly outta no where 5 years ago if I read someone making such claims as I have here I may very well have possibly also dismissed there claims as crazy so I get it , it’s just one of them kinda things where I guess saying that some people simply need to see to believe is relevant so I wont take offense if some read this and dismiss my claims but I will say I genuinely feel sorry for the fact that they aren’t having such experiences in there lives as for me , this phenomenon has changed me entirely on many deep levels and in all very good ways generally so I feel blessed with what I’ve been able to experience.
Christopher Reece
I live in Dutchess Park…I saw it. It was real. No sound, moving slow. Then gone.
Mark
I was 12 or 13 living in Lagrangville, NY on Arthursburg Road and saw this v-shaped object in the sky. My sister actually saw it first from the window and said, what the heck is that?! We went outside and it was pretty far away at that time. Many of the neighbors were outside now, we were all shouting up and down the street about this object. It seemed to be a solid, moving very, very slowly. There was literally zero noise coming from it. In hindsight I would say that it appeared to drift, consistently in a single direction through the sky and was hovering in a single location for ~10 minutes over a field, ~100-200 feet away at about a 45 degree angle from the driveway. It just sat there, no noise. It was VERY dark out and no back light to see a shape. My step-father brought out his binoculars but we still couldn’t make out any shapes. This was ABSOLUTELY not planes. I agree with other folks that have posted here, that it was likely a couple of hundred yards across. It again, moved slowly south and further and further into the sky. It was heading toward Sylvan lake (~1000 to 5000 feet in the sky) and it again seemed to hoover over that area, much higher now. It was then that I saw a red light drop from the bottom of the larger object and it took off like a shot (not gaining speed as it went but instantaneously) heading east and it was out of sight and into the tree line. This went on for some time, maybe an hour or more if memory serves correct. Definitely saw a UFO that night, something that was either technically beyond our comprehension or not from this planet.
Patty Augeri
1985. Milwaukee ave, Bethel Ct. 9 p.m.. I looked up and saw 5-7 large bright lights arranged in a boomerang pattern. Appeared fairly close yet there was no sound. No movement. Huge. I watched for ten minutes, then it just disappeared.
Sara Bugaighis
Hello!
I’m currently working on a documentary about UFO sightings in the Hudson Valley Flap and Westchester Boomerang. If you have any footage of your experiences and would be interested in being interviewed please reach out to me at sbugaighis@anomalyent.com
Thanks,
Sara
Robin Green
Areas adjacent to the Hudson Valley (the Tri State Area Ma., Ct., NY) have chronicles of “high strangeness” and unexplained sightings besides Sheffeld, Ma.. High strangeness, according to the lit. is weird and out of step in terms of time and/or frequency, perhaps dimension. Falls Village Ct had a power plant and of course the water falls and according to my mother and grandmother who grew up in Sharon Ct: the Falls are known for strange lights in the skies and other woo hoo happenings.
For work, Cynthia and I traveled the back roads between Lakeville, Falls Village, Sharon and Amenia Union, CT. Then we drove from Amenia to Wasaiic NY . The drive to work was 30 -40 minutes. We worked at Wasaiic Developmental Center from late 1979 -1981. We took this route to and from work and had ongoing sightings, we believed with the same sentience.
The last sighting was very close, within feet. where a very large and bright light came close to the side of the car, went straight up, and very slowly and closely moved over the car. There were many cars parked by the turn off to Wasaiic where this occurred and throughout the years I have posted about this but have never found another person from that time period…
Our sighting was of a circular craft and only in the last few years Have I read descriptions that are similiar to what I saw underneath the vehicle. (I posted a description of what I saw in the early 90’s on a MUFOn site for Ct or may be NY).
Geographically, I think the area North of NYC and closer to the coast are important.
Thomas Rocchio
Time period 1984 ish . There were a dozen or more neighbors standing in the street looking up at an eliptical object. Must have been two football fields long with about 20 or more large lights surrounding it’s edge. They must have been 10 or 15 feet in diameter. not spot lights,but just glowing. We were two miles east from Goldens Bridge Westchester County. My son, and I drove to Goldens Bridge to get a better look. It made no noise. If it were a Blimp there would be a sound. We watched it travel very slowly heading South above I 684 towards White Plains direction. It soon reversed and came back Northerly. It made a few zig zags on the way back. then kept on going Northerly toward Brewster, or Fishkill direction. The next day my next door neighbor called me, and said go out side there is one heading for your house. I went out, but this one was triangular in shape, also noiseless. had green, red color lights on bottom this was nowhere as large as the previous one .It seemed as though it was coming from the Danbury Airport direction. It seemed to be just above the tree tops so I could not get a good look at it. A few years later there was a group that met in the Yonkers Library about UFOs but mostly concerned about Crop Circles then UFOs. Some of the members said they saw the same verylong eliptical soundless thing surrounded by large glowing lights when I did. I think sometime this century we will have proof that these UFOs are real
Sandra
I saw this same thing, same time frame. July 1984.
We stopped the car on 84/taconic intersection to get out and watch. Still haunts me!
KRC
I was driving home from White Plains that night from work at IBM up to Poughkeepsie. I came up N 684, then got on i84 West. I was coming down towards the Taconic Pkwy and a bunch of us pulled over and watched this huge thing glide up the valley. It was dark, but the sky was clear. While there were lights around the perimeter of this thing at intervals, the thing that struck me was how it blotted out all the lights from houses and streets on the ground as it moved north. Not a sound. There were a bunch of us pulled over. I am assuming Sandra was one of them. I cannot say for sure, but it seemed consistent with a flying, wedge-shaped thing. What ever it was it was huge. Hundreds of meters at least. Looking at a topo map now on Google, I’d estimate we were at about 800ft elevation near the i 84 Stormville Rest Area. The thing was over East Fishkill, heading north over the Taconic Parkway. The valley floor there is around 400ft in elevation. Even though that was 38 years ago, I can remember it like yesterday (I was 20). It was mysterious and exciting. Not scary. I remember later reading about claims from ultralight plane formations, and yes, Stormville airport is right there, but it doesn’t add up. A bunch of small planes will not blot out the countryside beneath them or between them and we were looking down on this thing. I was definitely below our elevation. The more I hear about how many people saw this and how consistent the stories are from different vantage points points to it not being a simple hoax.
YashayabenIsrael
I saw the same machine hovering over the highway and i was a child it was 1984ish aswell broad daylight and it had these different color glowing lights around the edge. It was hovering and made no noise.
JOHN DEEGAN
I witnessed with a work colleague a UFO hovering over a chemical plant in Manchester at 5.50am one clear July morning in 1999, i was going to work in Trafford Park on my pushbike when i heard the sound of the nearby chemical plants emergency hooter going off, when i looked over from the road there was this craft hovering over the chemical pipelines, i was quickly joined by a colleague who was also cycling to work. It was very quiet at that time and the only noise was that of the hooter, there was no noise from the craft, it was as if they had parked up mid air and put the hand brake on. It was not of this world, it made us both late for our 6am shift in the factory where i was temping at the time, so i became a believer that we were being visited by extraterrestrials, i had gone to a talk in 1994 about the Suffolk UFO given by the Col. Charles Holt the former deputy base commander of the Usa military facility there and watched a few programmes on the subject previously. It was only as a christian catholic believer that in Feburary 2016 i came across the fact that Jesus & Mary and some of the saints had appeared to the visionary Veronica at Bayside USA (1970-94) amongst other things they told her about what would happen in the end times we are now living through was that it was Satan & his cohorts who were flying these various craft around the world in order to trick mankind into believing we were being visited by alien races that don’t exist. When the christian Rapture takes place which i believe will be some time this decade news media will report to those left behind that a mass alien abduction has occurred in order to mask the divine event (more fake news), this will herald in the 7 year Tribulation period ie, when Jesus releases the 4 horsemen, the war will be started by the combined forces of Russia/China & New York is hit by a comet, for more on this go to the shrine website http://www.tldm.org and look under Directives for the subject. Their appearances at Bayside were authenticated by the many miracles performed there, although the church will never officially recognise it, they did say there that Satan had entered the church now at its highest level as part of the ongoing spiritual war.
When the UFO & Consciousness show came to Manchester in 2017 it took place across the road from where i had witnessed the UFO in 1999, given my own faith journey i don’t believe this was a coincidence. They promote the idea at the show that we are being visited by alien races and some of the conspiracy theories surrounding this. There are and have been many documentaries on the tv on the subject which also promote this idea.
I had a letter published in the local secular press on the subject in 2018 on the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
So that was my mystery explained, Satan & his cohorts are supernatural beings thats why the bible tells us we are not up against mere flesh & blood but powers & principalities. Thats why the christian has prayer/fasting etc in their spiritual armoury, which is effective against his activities.
Regards John
Greg S
During the period of the early to mid 80’s we saw plenty of ultralights flying in patterns, in what I would guess, was to lead people to believe they were seeing a UFO. It was pretty easy to debunk on a clear night because you could see right through the center of the “object”. However, one night while at the intersections of route 202 and 118, while pumping gas at a Shell station, I and many other people saw a clearly solid object with quite a lot of detail. What stuck with me was the way it moved – it looked as if it slid off the horizon in less than a second. It did not appear to use a propulsion engine, more like releasing something an letting gravity pull it – except this moved horizontally.
Robert Garon
Date:March 1983
Time:10:30pm(aprox)
Location: Pawling n.y.
Siting Location: nys.rt22 Hannaford Market (former Grand Union)
Description:
At the above approximate time, I was headed to Westchester County NY for duty. (Note:as I left my driveway I noticed through the trees bright red and white lights in the southern sky of which I kept my eye on as I drove on this very dark night with a very star-bright sky)
As I approached the traffic light heading south I came upon several vehicles stopped in the highway with the occupants out side of their vehicles with the doors open all looking and pointing skyward. As I approached I the noticed that the sky above (grand union), first, bright red and white lights in the sky at about 1000ft altitude. More intriguing was the shape,shape, shape of a triangle and although the bright stars were plainly visible on the outer area the stars were blocked out in the middle of the triangle leading me to believe that this was a solid craft. The craft hovered completely silently, not even a hum, for approximately 10-15 minutes and oddly the others gathered looking up were silent with only murmurs could be heard. After the minutes passed, the craft the pivoted off one of the corners that had been on the easterly direction pivoted to the north and in an impossible movement was gone in a millisecond. As as stunned as the other we oddly got back into our vehicles and drove away, no discussions were exchanged. When I reported for duty, I mentioned this “encounter ” to my co worker, and he said that he saw it as wee in the Peekskill area crossing the Hudson River heading east (my encounter was on the ny Connecticut border,east of the Hudson River) that same evening.
We both confirmed that we both saw the same thing.
After my shift ended, I drove back to Pawling ny and got home as my family were just pouring coffee so I mentioned to my mom and dad (my duty post had me living away from my own home) about what I saw, my father who then asked my mother to tell me what happened to them that same evening. My mom and dad had a home that looked down upon a lake of about 15 acres, that the craft had come and hovered over the lake with its red and white lights on, the craft hovered for 10 minutes then lifted and bolted silently into the night sky.
After discussing this shared sightings I decided to call the nysp and as about other sightings being reported, the desk trooper reported NO REPORTS. Approximately 20 minutes later the telephone rang, it was a trooper supervisor calling me back to tell me that yes, there were thousands of sightings from Westchester to Columbia County and that we did indeed see and witness one of the largest UFO sightings unresolved to date.since this time I have shared my story to family and friends and the one constant is my story never changes and no embellishments have been added..
Although I always keep my eyes trained on the night shy I have see but never as close,strange movements in the shy. (Full disclosure)I do live near the only legally listed and verified multiple abductions sites on the face of the earth Sheffield Massachusetts as reported by Thom Reed abductee (Google him and see references)
David Schroeder
On the night of October 15, 1984, or around the time of the UFO sightings in the Hudson Valley, Sgt. John Zeller of the Keene, New Hampshire police observed a dirigible shaped object that hovered over Route. 12, just west of Keene. The remarkable thing is the description of the object is quite similar to what was being seen in the Hudson Valley. Sgt. Zeller reported that the object had pulsating red, green, and white lights, and was absolutely still, like it was fixed to the sky. When he shone his cruiser’s spotlight on it, the object began to descend towards the cruiser. Here is a link to this sighting report: http://www.noufors.com/police_officer_and_others_see_dirigible-shaped_ufo_over_Keene_NH.html
I placed the above comment earlier, but might have pressed the back button. In any case, while getting lunch at a coffee shop in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in the 90’s I met three women from the Hudson Valley. Being a life long UFO buff I immediately asked them if they had heard about the Hudson Valley UFO, and it turned out two of them had seen it. One of the women with her husband, while driving near the Bear Mountain Bridge, observed a bright object making fast zig zags above the bridge. That was in 1983. The other woman had a much more spectacular sighting in broad daylight at an intersection in Wappinger’s Falls, NY in 1990. She was stopped at the traffic light when a huge circular disc came over the intersection and hovered at low altitude. She said it was so huge that it covered the intersection and beyond it. The bottom of this disc had multiple, concentric circles of round lights that moved in alternating directions, clockwise, counter-clockwise, clockwise, etc. What shocked her and other motorists was that it was just “floating” above the intersection.
David
On the night of October 15, 1984, or around the time of the UFO sightings in the Hudson Valley, Sgt. John Zeller of the Keene, New Hampshire police observed a dirigible shaped object that hovered over Route. 12, just west of Keene. The remarkable thing is the description of the object is quite similar to what was being seen in the Hudson Valley. Sgt. Zeller reported that the object had pulsating red, green, and white lights, and was absolutely still, like it was fixed to the sky. When he shone his cruiser’s spotlight on it, the object began to descend towards the cruiser. Here is a link to this sighting report: http://www.noufors.com/police_officer_and_others_see_dirigible-shaped_ufo_over_Keene_NH.html
sharon hengst
i saw the ufo. back in the eighties with my friends. we were atop a large hill at a new development off of fields lane. no houses yet, just the dirt path to the top, the beginning. i thought i was crazy as i talked them and behind them in daylight came this giant silver ship. i told them i saw a ufo, i think. well they turned around and they all freaked out. the angle was above the ship so the sun was shinning off the top. we were above it. we decided since it was going so slow that we should chase it. we did. we watched its straight direction and determined were it was going. we would intercept. now mind you this craft was HUGE! i’m not sure exactly how big but definitely an amount of acreage. it wasn’t totally flat on top. mind you not a sound came from it. any way we drove as fast as we could to the diverting reservoir and climbed up the dam. now it started getting dark. we waited, my friends questioned if we got the location right. we stayed and it appeared slowly over the horizon. now it had gotten dark by now,. it slowly came down the length of the water. people driving by on 202 started pulling in and climbing the dam with us. i decided we weren’t crazy. no sound, lights shining in a triangle formation, and again, no sound! this craft was immense as it came over us. now here is the crazy part. it stopped and hovered above us for a bit. it blocked out the sky it was so big. still no sound. then it started to rotate. just hang in the sky and rotate to face back the other way. then that damned thing shot out of there so fast if you blinked you would miss it. some people on the dam did miss it because some were saying it just disappeared from sight. but no, i saw it leave just super fast. still, no sound. the news reported it was ultralights but i know them very well. they are loud and annoying. also the front point of the triangle light could not rotate with out moving its spot if an ultralight. also we saw the thing from above in daylight!!! this was around brewster ny and in search of reported on it. they even interviewed a brewster cop on the show
Mike J
I’m going to tell you this is all way overblown. I was about 6, (1983 timeframe) and we saw the ring of lights flying overhead, pulled over to watch. It looked really cool, but it was nothing more than a ring of lights higher up in the sky.
We lived in Orange, CT, at the time, so directly along the flight path discussed here.
I guarantee you, it was nothing more than a bunch of planes flying in formation. Everything else you here is most likely distorted memory from ppl wanting to recall that it was something more significant.
Giana Thompson
I was in middle school in the mid-80’s. A friend of mine’s older sister and boyfriend took us to Bear Mountain to walk around. When we were leaving it was dark and walking towards the lake to get back to the car. My friend and I noticed lights in the distance flying in a very abnormal pattern and hovering for a bit. Then it took off so fast, it was unbelievable. We immediately thought it was a UFO because there was no other explanation given the way it was moving. To this day, I thought we were the only one’s who saw it u til I just googled it and saw this! Wow!
Bill Blaski
Just watched this episode on Pluto tv. I certainly believe the cops who saw this. Both describing it as long as a football field. No noise, no buzzing, no nothing …… multiple witnesses on the side of the road etc. unbelievable!!!!!
Dee Cee
A friend was driving me home and we pulled off the Bear Mtn Parkway in Peekskill NY with many other cars and this flew over us after hovering then disappeared. My entire family was outside looking her family was outside as well as relatives across town all described the same. My brother took pictures with a zoom lens film camera and they came blank. We all saw same thing. Crazy and I’ll never forget it. Don’t believe it was planes from Stormville when they tried to explain it away.
Dave
Hi. I am currently working on a podcast about this event. If you are interested about recounting your tales on the podcast I would love to have you on to talk about it.
Email me at daveandgiggles@gmail.com
Thanks
Dave
Justin laboon
Just watched this episide. From aurora ny seen the circle lights with the light off to the right side kinda different. But the same well traveled from the middle lights. when I was 12 will never forget it it brought me back to that night in the tent. Email me expert from the show I can’t believe I just seen that on tv. And from ny seeing that. That was aired then I was young.
Joe M.
In 1984/1985 my friend and I were driving South on Route 17K past what was called at the time, Stewart Air Force Base in Newburgh, NY. We observed a huge, dark triangular “craft” floating low and slow to our right and we pulled over to observe it. It was enormous, made no noise, and if it wasn’t illuminated from street lights on the base below it would have been difficult to differentiate from the night sky. It was so low I could have hit it with a rock. It seemed to take forever to pass and during that time a NY State Trooper pulled behind us and got out of his car and briefly watched it with us. Because I knew of Stewart AFB’s use as a NORAD base in the ’60’s, and the fact that it looked solid and “mechanical” I assumed it was a test vehicle of some kind. I was not thinking extraterrestrial but we were all pretty amazed at what we saw. The trooper abruptly told us we needed to get our car off of the shoulder and at that point we left. It was a story I told people now and again but I remained completely oblivious to the sightings of these things in the Hudson Valley area until the Unsolved Mysteries aired about it.
It was maybe Christmastime in 1994 or ’95. I had the TV on in the background as I wrapped presents and there was a re-run of the show on. I was stunned when I heard them talk about what I had experienced myself. I remember running downstairs to get my wife. I finally felt I had some validation. Maybe what I saw was indeed of this earth but now I have doubts.
Dave
Hi. I am currently working on a podcast about this event. If you are interested about recounting your tales on the podcast I would love to have you on to talk about it.
Email me at daveandgiggles@gmail.com
Thanks
Dave
brian jahrling
not sure of the exact year, late 80’s i believe in wurtsboro hills, ny. Driving home with my dad around midnight we noticed a really bright light about a mile away, wondered what it was but then couldn’t see it because of the mountains. We got closer, about half mile from our house and saw directly above us a huge black triangle shaped thing. 1 bright light on each corner just hovering above a house on the side of the road. We stopped, roll down the windows and noticed it made no sound at all, wasn.t moving and was low enough if I threw a rock I could have hit it. It stayed there about 3 or 4 minutes then began turning slowly then started moving off and up slowly. We turned around and tried to follow it. By the time we got back to the entrance of wurtsboro hills we could see it far off moving over the mountains going towards stewart air base direction. Next day the owner of that house, a very elderly woman was in the local store complaining that she heard jet airplanes flying over her house in the middle of the night. Month later the same woman hired my dad to remove this huge tree from her front yard because it was dying fast for some reason. went to cut the tree down and it was completely rotted inside. not sure if thats related or coincidence.
Jeffrey Mauer
In the early 80’s ( ’81 or ’82 ), returning from Middletown, NY and heading towards Monticello at night, we were descending from the Shawangunk ridge on Rt.17 and saw a large circular pattern of lights over the Bashekill area. I was 10 years old at the time. People were pulled over on the road shoulder observing it. Multiple colored lights were visible. I remember them blinking on and off a few times and then…no trace. I always wondered if residents of Wurtsboro had ever seen the ”aerial phenomena”…. you would be the first from the area that I’ve come across.
M.K.
The proposal that small planes flying in tight formation accounts for all these sightings is armchair-concocted rubbish. In the early 80’s I and several friends saw one of these giant triangular craft pass over I-84 late at night. We pulled over and got out to look at it. As did other people on the road. It was very low, silent, and passed directly over our heads. I grew up within a mile of a small airport and had seen and heard low flying prop planes passing overhead almost daily (and nightly) my entire life. The alleged hoax incidents aside, no sober adult who saw one of these objects close up would confuse them with airplanes.
Michael Cyr
I saw what you saw back then and you are so very correct in your assessment! What I saw at close range was definitely NOT aircraft of any kind. My sightings of this huge object still haunt me to this day.
Scott Taney
I observed a huge Triangle craft for over and hour at close range in the winter of 1978 in Pawling Ny
Photos were taken, and confiscated by the air force and we were told to never ever mention the incident again. I say this because it still haunts me
to this day as well
Paul
I grew up in New York, about 45 Minutes from Manhattan. My Cousins lived across the street and I spent a lot of time there, often walking home in the dark. The direction I walked home was facing the Direction of the City and could see the lights on the horizon. (about 60 miles SE away) I was always into Stars and Planets and looking for the Stars that didn’t twinkle to spot the planets. It was on 3 occasions doing this that I spotted UFO’s. But…
One night when I was about 15… Before Dark, I walked out of my cousins house and out onto the street and stopped to stare at an unusually bright “evening star”. As I stared, it split in 2. I figured it was just a plane coming close so kept watching… but it then split into 3 and now another light appeared behind it. Then that one split in 2 as the first set got closer, then split to 3 also and another light appeared behind it. IT was too weird so I ran in to get my cousins to come check it out. by the time we got back out, there was a 4th set in the distance and we could make out a shape in the first set. It was a HUGE Triangular shaped ship with the outside points cut off.. so flat and not pointed like a wing. As it came closer, we were Transfixed and none of us remember saying anything, just watching. It passed over us and made Not a Sound! Complete Silence! It filled our Entire field of view over us. IT was at about the height of a commercial Airliner but it was HUGE!!! And it was Completely covered with Pipes underneath. As that one passed over we could see the next one coming.
And that was it.
About 5 – 6 years later, I was at work, talking to some co workers about Aliens when I suddenly remembered that night. I was trying to remember what happened and why we didn’t go tell my aunt and uncle – But nothing. I called one cousin and asked him if he remembered it and he said “Yeah…. wasn’t that a dream I told you about?” and I said no and suggested we get his sister on the phone. When we asked her about it she said “Wasn’t that a dream I told you about?”. None of us know what happened.
Then, about 10 years ago, I was watching something about aliens and they mentioned some organization, so the following day I looked them up and sent a message. I got a call from a woman that asked me a few more questions about that night and asked if I had ever heard of the Hudson Valley sightings and that I should look them up. I did and they were all similar to my story and all in a line the ships had passed over us!
I’ll always wonder what happened that night
alison mcnally
it was in 1985 or 6 it was in New Paltz I saw it and followed it north west route 32 huge I saw it to big rectangular colored lights two football fields big and silent time was strange and then it was gone. definitely not of this earth I believe it was alien of from the future. I was picked up off campus by some townies if you read this contact me I was with Patrick who lived up in mountain in a round house cool guy
Ray
Where: Yorktown Heights, NY
When: around 1985 or 86
We were walking to or from the Jefferson Valley Mall with my friend Joe T. We saw a gigantic triangular solid object, dark in color. It was right there easily seen, sun shinning. It made no noise and hovered for about 8-10 minutes. It then turned a bright glowing red and went from 0 to some extreme speed in no time. And like that, it was gone. This happened on a summer day about 5 or 6 pm.
Chris
Is it possible the craft could have been a massive dirigible?
Michael Cyr
My arguement against the dirigible theory is that I have heard and seen lighter than air craft sailing over my head and I could clearly hear the rustling of fabric and ropes and the sound of the burners firing hot air into the balloon. The object I saw made absolutely no noise whatsoever!
R. Takacs
I was living in New Paltz N.Y in 1986 and saw this same object clear as day just after dusk one evening. It was massive, seen by at least 50 people in the supermarket parking lot. We were all just in awe of its size. But it was still just light enough to see the outline against the early evening sky. It was one object, V shaped, with white lights, noiseless, and very big. If I live to be 1000 years old I’ll never forget it.
J. Christello
My parents lived on Peach Lake Brewster Westchester County NY for several decades. In summer 1984 my husband was sitting on the deck overlooking the lake and watched this huge circular craft cruise over the lake toward him at a hovering pace. Any other aircraft moving this slowly would have fallen from the sky. He called me to come outside and we watched this huge thing blotting out the stars in the sky hover over the house making this very low deep whirring sound. We were mesmerized. It had an odd series of lights on the edges? Not sure but this thing was gigantic. Like the size of the mother ship in Close Encounters. We were pretty sure that we saw a UFO but it wasn’t confirmed until I saw a tv interview with a guy that I knew lived in Brewster NY and he described the same exact thing over I684. Amazing experience.
Chuck Courier
I live in Statesville, NC. In the late 80s I saw the very same thing you are describing. It was hoovering over a mountain in my back yard. Very Large! V shaped object with lights. When it moved ( in the NE direction) it moved very slow with no noise. My mom saw it and in the following days I spoke with neighbors that saw it and said they were speachless! Never saw or heard of anything like it until now. I just watched an episode of Ancient Aliens, the show was about the events of the Hudson Valley Sightings.
Michael James
As a ufo researcher and screenwriter I can tell you this crazy was NOT of alien design. Believe it or not that was created by humans and flown by human pilots. The craft is called a TRB3, Google it. They were seen over Belgium during the 80s and early 90s. It’s a US military craft, sorry gravity tech stolen from Nicola Tesla’s notes.
the phone you are reading this from has more technology and computing power than what got men to the moon in 1969. We are living in The Jetsons age so where are the flying cars? The truth is the military has flying vehicles that make no sound and defy gravity itself by bending space around it. Is too complicated to explain in more detail and I’m not that smart. Keep looking up. ✌
DotBronx
1985: I was working inside a garage (Lettering a large Gas truck) on Evans Street (off Main Street) in New Rochelle NY…it was about 3:30-4 Pm on a Sunday. The Owners Brother ran in and yelled for me to come outside…I reluctantly put down my paintbrush and climbed down the wood plank scaffold to go outside…when I got out there he asked me to look up and tell him what I saw….I calmly said “the big dipper”…he said “do you see any other stars”, I said no. He very nervously said “well it wasn’t a big dipper a minute ago”…he handed me his polarized sunglasses and said to keep an eye on them while he ran to his car to get his binoculars….as I stood there the white dots rearranged themselves in a bird flight type triangle…I took a stick and drew it in the dirt to show him on his return…as I stared the triangle became orange dots that had a motion of their own and a glow and the triangle of dots disappeared….somewhere in my excitement he had returned but I can’t remember if he shared the binoculars….afterward we were a bit shocked…I stuttered that it must be airplanes…he said he had flown airplanes and there are no aircraft that could hover at that altitude….as we stood there chatting about what we saw…south and West of us there were weather balloons released probably what was miles away….we just looked at each other and did not discuss it anymore. We basically agreed that what we saw is what we saw and unless you saw it we would not bring it up….
Mark Packo
Hello —
Since I was tangentially involved in the production of this particular Unsolved Mysteries episode way back in 1990 or 91, and because it is an anniversary of a unique local sighting, I thought this post might be welcome here.
(Pardon the formatting and other errors, was originally written for another purpose, no time for corrections)
UFO SPOTTING
August 21, 1983
lower Fairfield and New Haven counties, CT
This attempt at a reconstruction of multiple sightings is provided as supplemental to my report pertaining to the similar UFO “wing” or “boomerang” type events which more prominently occurred during 03/21/85, 05/04/89 and 08/31/89. (Most but not all of report available online: search Mark Packo UFOs)
Based on meagre sources, from a cold trail, I made this connect-the-dots effort because previous reporting was so cursory. Please keep in mind that what is included here is merely a small fraction of the approximately 90 minute-long incident. Likewise, it is very important and necessary to refer to maps of these locations. Maps are not the territory, but in this case they provide a damn good illustration of what happened within it.
I have made every attempt, in listing these reports, to clarify the narrative – while maintaining what facts are available. Admittedly I needed to resort to guesswork now and then. As always, I have not included witness names. The timeline is critical, therefore emphasized.
*An asterisk designates a repeat location: the same place, or very close, to where a similar sighting was reported on one or more occasion during 1983 – 1989.
August 21, 1983 was a Sunday, cloudless, moon was waxing-gibbous…
Pg2 A. Greater New Haven area:
GNH1. Source: New Haven Journal Courier, August 22, 1983
East Haven, Foxon section —
“At Tweed-New Haven Airport, the calls began coming in
(to the night attendant – the control tower closed at 10pm)
about 10:30pm from the Foxon section of East Haven…
(Foxon – Lake Saltonstall – is about 3 miles NNE of the airport)
…received ‘maybe 20’ phone calls, each reporting ‘something up in the sky with different colored lights.’
… the calls kept coming for an hour…”
(* 03/21/85 – includes interview with same controller.)
GNH2. Source: NUFORC.org
East Haven, Momauguin section —
Reported on 8/17/2000
Sunday 21, August 1983, 10:50pm,
Duration 15–20 minutes; Shape: Sphere
“Object next to Tweed New Haven airport at tree level. Viewed by most residents of Stewart Street.
I was watching cable TV which was just installed in our area and the movie channel went fuzzy. Suddenly we heard screams. Our neighbor’s daughter saw the object and got scared. My mother ran to the front door and object was directly overhead at tree level. No sound except for ultralow humming/vibration. …So we run outside and the neighbors are out and were looking at this thing.
I can directly see into window of craft. If someone were to be standing in window I would have clearly seen them. Entire block witnessed event… Called airport and they told us they had ‘hovercraft” in the area.’… “
(Unable to contact witness, but was able to determine this sighting likely took place near intersection of Stewart and Stuyvesant – about 1,500 feet west of the old Tweed tower.
Duration of this sighting reported as 15-20 minutes, which I consider overestimated. Witness, 13 years old at the time, admits “can’t put pieces of event together clearly. Lost track of time of event.”
Likewise, it is difficult to understand what angle she was observing this object at, in respect to “directly overhead” and “window”.)
Pg3
GNH3. Source: New Haven Journal Courier, August 22, 1983
New Haven, Long Wharf —
“Police in New Haven and West Haven also began getting calls after 10:30 p.m.
R.M. and his wife saw a circular object with blinking lights and called out to their neighbors on Washington Avenue.
…Not far away, in the parking lot of the Jackson Newspapers building, security guards JV and KR saw an object move toward the roof of the newspaper plant.
…’We were doing our rounds and it just sat there in the air… The thing was too huge to be a plane. And the lights would suddenly go completely out.’”
(The Jackson Newspaper building once housed the New Haven Register offices – a newspaper which avoided any mention of this event. It is now the Jordan’s Furniture store, between Sargent, Long Wharf and Hallock drives. This is about 2 miles NW, across New Haven Harbor, from the Stewart Street location.)
(Unable to locate Washington Avenue witness. Washington Avenue in New Haven runs within a mile of this shoreline area, so an aircraft, even just a couple of hundred feet above the Long Wharf locale, would be quite visible. My survey of the area suggests that witnesses were most likely close to the intersection of Washington and Ella Grasso Blvd.
Sightings’ time is unfortunately absent here. The old newspaper building’s parking lot allows a relatively open line of sight from SSE to NE. Therefore, the guards might have seen the UFO approaching from the direction of the harbor before it positioned itself above the building, probably when the nearby Washington Avenue witnesses were also gathering to watch it.)
Pg4
GNH4. Source: ibid
New Haven, Yale Bowl —
“It was late Sunday, almost midnight…
“SF and JT had been driving home from downtown New Haven Sunday night when SF suddenly saw something … ‘The thing was huge… It looked bigger than a 747.’ He said, describing an oval-shaped object with multicolored lights which hovered above and across their path. It stopped above Yale Bowl….
(Neither witness was locatable. However, from this scant information we can surmise the following:
These two fellows were exiting downtown New Haven on their way home to West Haven and Milford, which means they were travelling WSW on Derby Avenue, near its intersection with Ella Grasso Blvd. This is adjacent to the very large and unlit open area of West River Memorial Park and the Saint Lawrence Cemetery. The UFO traveled from that area to their left (south), moving northward over Derby Ave before positioning itself above the stadium.)
“…as two men sat atop their car outside Yale Bowl, watching the sky – and waiting.
’We waited for it to take off before we left.’ He (SF) said, describing the same disappearing series of lights on the object.”
“…SF and JT were not alone in their observations… a crowd near an auto accident on Derby Avenue was watching something in the sky, West Haven police reported.”
Yale Bowl is approximately 2 miles NW of the Jackson Newspapers building site.
Roughly speaking, the time-frame for sightings between the Foxon section of East Haven and this Westville section of New Haven is about 75 minutes (10:30 to 11:45 pm.)
Now, let’s go approximately 20 miles SW…
Pg5 B. Greater Bridgeport area:
GB1. Source: Flying Saucer Review, volume 31, 03/86 and ParaNet Alpha, 08/27/89 – (same author – similar but not identical accounts, intercut here) Bridgeport, Seaside Park —
“At 10:40 pm, three women reported a low flying ‘V’ shaped object… These witnesses became somewhat agitated as the large display of light seemed to follow them from the shore and through Bridgeport towards the North End of town.”
(Park Avenue runs south-north along the western border of Bridgeport, and is likely the road taken by these two ladies as the fled directly from the park.)
(* 05/04/89 & 03/21/85 – Which includes and comments upon the University of Bridgeport/Interstate 95 sightings involving Night Siege authors.)
GB2. Source: ibid
Bridgeport, St. Vincent/Brooklawn section –
“… I (RPC) myself, saw a set of unusual lights low over the North End near St. Vincent’s Hospital.
(Witness – the author – was on the third floor of a building at the corner of French and Anson streets, approximately 1,000 feet south, and on a declination, from the hospital.)
…studying when I decided to take a break. …at the north facing window, looking out when I saw a set of unusual lights. At first I thought it was a light aircraft, but quickly dismissed this idea, as the lights were too widely separated and moving much too slowly. There were three of them, very low (about fifteen degrees off the rooftops), one red, one green and one blue. They appeared equally separated and three hand-widths across (with my hands stretched directly in front of me). As I watched, the lights blinked out.
I had first noticed them to the north-west drifting slowly to the south seemingly less than a mile away.
(Above Merritt Street/Toilsome Hill section -about 4.5 miles north of Seaside Park)
…As I watched, they seemed to be drifting slowly and then blinked out.
…I moved to a window facing west, over Main Street. As I looked out, the lights reappeared.
…the lights suddenly switched back on, now much closer. I was facing a display of three large, glowing lights, the left one red, the middle one green, the right one blue. Now they were seven to eight hand-widths across and hovering, motionless. They were stationary now, and much closer. There were three widely-spaced lights, approximately four city blocks away, about two or three hundred feet over the rooftops. …The lights, colored red, green and blue, began changing color…then they all went out.
Pg6
…I moved (He returned from the west window, back) to the north facing window.
…As I looked out the open window I was presented with a huge wing-shaped array of lights moving slowly and silently to the east. …I witnessed a huge display of wing shaped colored lights, moving silently and slowly eastward between me and the hospital… I immediately realized that the object was very low, of tremendous proportions, and could not be an airfoil, as it was moving too slowly to hold itself up. …watched it intently for about three minutes.
It drifted to the east (towards Rte8) for about one half mile and then the lights dimmed and shut off. The lights had been large, glowing and seemingly attached to a huge structure in the shape of an open ‘V …approximately 300 to 500 feet wide…and 200 to 300 feet long …it was 10:45 pm…”
(* 05/04/89 – identical object traveled ¼ mile south of the hospital, crossing Main Street from direction of Mountain Grove Cemetery, heading towards Park Cemetery.)
GB3. Source: Night Siege, 2nd Edition, 1998, pg. 73
Bridgeport, Brooklawn section? —
(Two witnesses) ”…saw an object near…home in Bridgeport, CT, just before 11:00 P.M. on August 21, 1983, a night during which police in the Bridgeport-New Haven area received a number of calls …
‘It moved above us, and as it went over we heard a faint humming sound,’ …‘It moved to the right and then the left. We watched for half a minute, and then all of a sudden the lights went off’.
…Both women were scared and ran into the house…
By the time they got back outside, the object was moving away.
… ’It zigzagged across the sky… We followed it visually to the horizon and then it just shot straight up…’”
(Verification of names from contemporaneous city records indicates that these witnesses were probably situated on Hawley Avenue, which runs SW to NE, crossing Main Street and running along the southern side of St. Vincent’s hospital. It provides a clear line of sight to the NE, towards Bunnell’s Pond/Beardsley Park – and Routes 8 and 25.)
Pg7
GB4. Source: ParaNet Alpha,
Stratford, Sikorsky Memorial Airport —
“Security guard L of Sikorsky Field in Stratford reported that a very excited motorist had driven into the airport at approximately 10:55 pm to report having seen ‘a huge UFO’ over Route 25 moments before.”
(* 08/31/89 & 09/89 – This fellow would have been travelling southbound on Rte25, on his way to the Interstate 95 interchange. It would have taken him about 10 minutes to arrive at the Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford, supporting 10:45pm for his sighting, which probably took place less than 2 miles NE of St Vincent’s hospital, in the vicinity of the Rte8-Rte15-Rte25 interchanges.)
GB5. Source: http://www.alienabductionresearchers.com/taconic-parkway-ufo-flap.html – anonymous (Email inquiry bounced – dormant website?)
Bridgeport, west side? –
“I saw this UFO in 1983 when it was hovering about 500 ft over my house in Bridgeport, CT. My sister lived in the house next door to me and came outside late on evening with five of her friends not knowing what was overhead. They were in shock as one of them looked up and saw this huge object later to be estimated at between 300 to 400 yards across…
There were no lights on and it wasn’t making a sound. She called me and just as I came out the door the craft began moving to the east at a very slow speed when all of a sudden about a hundred multicolored lights turned on. You could see structure under the ship almost like the types of beams you would see in a warehouse.
The ship was massive. It looked like a floating city. I jumped in my car and gave chase, but fell short of where it ended up. If I had gone another ¼ mile I would have seen it again over top of the GE building on Boston Avenue in Bridgeport, CT where hundreds of people parked their cars and got out to watch it…”
(Seems probable that this sighting also took place near St Vincent’s hospital, and at the same time as those previously listed, considering the fact that the main witness drove east following after the UFO, only to stop so close to Old Mill Green.)
(Likewise, my guess is that the author’s mention of the UFO’s appearance over the GE site was something he only assumed took place soon after his own sighting, probably because he read about it the next day in the Police Log of the Bridgeport Post, or heard about it later from others; see GB8.)
Pg8
GB6. Source: ParaNet Alpha
Monroe, Whitney Farms area –
“At 11:06pm, the Monroe Police Department received a call from an electrical engineer living near a new golf course in the town. …LL reported observing a set of unusual colored lights hovering …
At 11:10 pm, the Monroe Police received another call … (3 witnesses) saw a very large, ‘V’ shaped group of lights hovering at less than two hundred feet in front of their house. The lights, ‘blue, green and almost a pink color’, hovered and then began moving directly towards the open fields of the golf course. …watched it hovering silently for approximately five minutes before it began moving silently over his house.
Shortly after this, another Monroe resident and her teenaged daughter saw the object moving slowly over their house back towards Bridgeport.”
(Elapsed time of these sightings, about 15 minutes: 11:05 – 11:20pm)
(* The Pequonnock river valley/Rte25 vicinity – from Rte15 north to Rte 111 – can be considered Ground Zero, due to so many of these type of sightings during that era.)
GB7. Source: Bridgeport Post, Area Police Log, August 22, 1983
Stratford, Bunnell High School/Pirhalla Farm —
“CR, 58, of Shelton, said he was stopped at about 11:30 at a traffic light at the corner of Huntington Road and Connor’s Lane when his wife first spotted the alleged UFO.
CR said he pulled over on Connor’s Lane and joined others who had gathered to watch the ‘huge cluster of lights’ …’two city blocks long and hovering 1,000 feet in the air’
…for about two minutes before it disappeared.”
(*Exact same location as 08/31/89.
Unable to verify given identity of reported witness from city directories – likely gave a false name to protect his privacy. My guess is that the couple were returning home at this hour, so facing north at the intersection. That angle of view is much more advantageous to noticing an aerial object stationed above the high school and adjacent fields.)
Pg9
GB8. Source: Bridgeport Post and ParaNet Alpha
Bridgeport, Old Mill Green area — General Electric facility/Lakeview Cemetery/ Stillman’s Pond
“At 11:50 pm, a young woman in the vicinity of the General Electric plant near Boston and Seaview Avenues called the Bridgeport police to say that she and several friends were watching a huge lighted object either moving or hovering in the sky.”
(* 09/89. This is the last reported sighting.
Note: the alleged time is an hour later than that of GB5.)
Total elapsed time of all Greater Bridgeport sightings =
70 minutes: 10:40 – 11:50pm
And again, total elapsed time for all Greater New Haven sightings =
75 minutes: 10:30 – 11:45pm
Pg10
Much as I would enjoy delving into all the sloppy reporting and inadequate research – and especially the egregious lack of information sharing by other investigators! – preceding my regrettably sparse and sketchy results here, I will not bother; too much time has passed.
Realistically, my only expected result was to provide a somewhat amplified list of only a small percentage of what must have been dozens of UFO sightings, with a potential timeline.
I prefer to leave speculation to the reader, but here are some personal observations I believe are justified:
There must have been at least two UFOs performing flyovers within both separate areas between 10:30 and 11:55pm on the night of August 21, 1983.
Regardless of how rapidly any type of aircraft might be able to travel – purposefully zipping back and forth, hopping here and there, between and within both counties –
the previous assumption that only one object was responsible for all the activity over so wide a range of places simply does not hold up. Even casual scrutiny, and just plain common sense, recommends that a single aircraft – or hoaxing formation – is an invalid conclusion.
Based on careful consideration of all the available information concerning this cluster of events I contend that, from the very beginning of this particular 80’s local wave, multiple UFOs were the rule rather than the exception.
The obviously deliberate selection of wide open areas – at least in lower Fairfield County – over which these unusually large aircraft rigged with such peculiar lighting repeatedly choose to be noticed describes an overall pattern, like a survey; stops on a tour.
In my opinion, one UFO sighting can be considered some sort of a display, but
multiple UFOs apparently in coordination comprise an overtly covert tactic:
a secretive presentation – as contradictory as it appears.
One would expect repeated maneuvers like those I have attempted to catalog, especially when conducted over the span of several years, to have a goal, to help achieve an outcome of some sort. Yet, after more than two and a half decades, any overall purpose this particular complex of UFO sightings eventually intended to serve – other than as some weird form of psychological operation – remains a mystery.
DotBronx
1985: (spring/summer) I was working inside a garage (Lettering a large Gas truck) on Evans Street (off Main Street) in New Rochelle NY…it was about 3:30-4 Pm on a Sunday. The Owners Brother ran in and yelled for me to come outside…I reluctantly put down my paintbrush and climbed down the wood plank scaffold to go outside…when I got out there he asked me to look up and tell him what I saw….I calmly said “the big dipper”…he said “do you see any other stars”, I said no. He very nervously said “well it wasn’t a big dipper a minute ago”…he handed me his polarized sunglasses and said to keep an eye on them while he ran to his car to get his binoculars….as I stood there the white dots rearranged themselves in a bird flight type triangle…I took a stick and drew it in the dirt to show him on his return…as I stared the triangle became orange dots that had a motion of their own and a glow and the triangle of dots disappeared….somewhere in my excitement he had returned but I can’t remember if he shared the binoculars….afterward we were a bit shocked…I stuttered that it must be airplanes…he said he had flown airplanes and there are no aircraft that could hover at that altitude….as we stood there chatting about what we saw…south and West of us there were weather balloons released probably what was miles away….we just looked at each other and did not discuss it anymore. We basically agreed that what we saw is what we saw and unless you saw it we would not bring it up….
Mark Packo
Hello, again. This sightings report goes along with the August 1983 events already submitted to Unsolved Mysteries, as well as my 1989 report, uploaded by MUFON; link:
Taken as a whole, all of these sightings – along with so many similar others included at Unsolved Mysteries, and other reputable places – provide an unassailable record of something worth far more investigation than has, even to this day, been provided.
Starting with the usually inadequate newspaper coverage, edited for brevity:
Bridgeport Post-Telegram, May 05, 1989 —
“Fairfield County residents reported seeing a large unidentified flying object soaring through the nighttime sky Thursday night. But Sikorsky Memorial Airport Manager… blamed it on a group of nearby pilots playing a prank.
Easton resident… said he saw a UFO flying near his home between 9:30 and 10 p.m. ‘It looked like a flying-wing-type shape with lights in the back… It flew over the treeline in back of our house.’ …said the craft resembled the U.S. Military’s new Stealth bomber, with red, yellow and blue lights in the back and a blinking red light on the right side.
But (airport manager)… said: ‘They’ve got to be airplanes.’
… A Trumbull woman who didn’t want to be identified telephoned the… Newspapers, saying the low-flying object was big as a football field and V-shaped. A low, mellow hum was emitted from the UFO, which was adorned with lights, she added.
Trumbull and Easton police departments reported receiving several calls of UFO sightings Thursday night….
Now, the bulk of my MUFON report concerning May 04, 1989, omitted from what had been uploaded:
BRIDGEPORT:
Sometime around 9 PM, a young married couple was driving north up Dewey Street, on their way to meet some friends for a late meal at the New Colony Diner, some two miles distant.
As they passed along the eastern border of Mountain Grove Cemetery… the couple noticed a group of bright white lights that appeared to be situated atop a high-rise building less than a quarter of a mile ahead of them and slightly to their left. As they approached North Avenue they saw, between the tall conifers spaced irregularly along the boundary of the cemetery, that these lights did not seem to be in motion, causing them to wonder whether they were possibly part of a newly installed air-conditioning unit atop the high-rise. However, once they arrived at the intersection of Dewey and North Avenue, stopping for the traffic light, they had a much closer look at what now shockingly resembled to each of them a “jet plane coming in for a landing”.
Craning their necks out the car’s side windows in order to get a better look, the couple observed a wing-shaped arrangement of evenly spaced white lights, with a single red light blinking off and on located at the tip of the port-side wing, closest to them. Though this array of lights seemed to belong to an aircraft, no fuselage was visible. Both of the witnesses remarked that the configuration of lights seemed to begin moving forwards, almost simultaneously with their arrival at the intersection. However, they were not firmly convinced of this being a fact, since they were both cognizant of the illusion of motionlessness which strong lights viewed head-on from a moving vehicle tends to create.
In any case, very slowly and without any discernable sound, the array advanced until it was directly above the intersection. While this was happening, the couple had to crouch down near the dashboard in order to view it through their windshield. Though the altitiude and apparent size of the display was difficult for either of them to estimate, they each steadfastly insisted that it still alarmingly resembled an unusually low-flying yet silent commercial airliner.
Gradually passing over the intersection, the lights began to execute what was described as a peculiar type of U-turn, moving “sideways” in an extremely tight angle and without any discernable variation between each constituent light as it happened. Changing direction to ENE, the formation remained inaudible, even though the car windows were rolled down and there was no other traffic noticed in the vicinity at the time.
Once the traffic light changed, the couple crossed North Avenue and immediately parked alongside the small cemetery behind Larson’s Funeral Home. Benefiting from the wide open view to the east that this site offered him, the husband got out of the car and watched as the lights gradually moved away, towards the NE. During this time he recalled seeing the port-side wing still as an angular row of steady white lights, but the starboard wing was now only visible as a string of pale green lights, which he judged to be aligned along its stern-most edge. He estimated this array’s altitude to have been no higher than that of a helicopter’s “hovering over your backyard, just above the treetops”. And, as before, no sound or fuselage was detected.
After watching for a minute or so, the couple proceeded in their car towards their destination. Meanwhile, over at the New Colony Diner, their friends were awaiting their arrival outside in the parking lot when they noticed a bright cluster of lights drifting above Central High/Kennedy Stadium. Remarking to each other about the similarity this sight bore to what they had once seen over a reservoir in Milford (Interstate 95, exit 34), they watched with increasing alarm as the lights seemed to make a slight course correction and head towards them. As it began to pass overhead, this wing-shape either decelerated or stopped momentarily, further astonishing the pair, as well as drawing the attention of numerous passerby and people from inside the diner. After less than a minute… the array contined heading NNE towards Trumbull.
EASTON:
Additional details were not forthcoming from this witness (mentioned in newspaper article)… It should be noted that the area over which the UFO was seen is directly adjacent to the Easton reservoir’s dam.
TRUMBULL:
Likewise, it was difficult to obtain a more satisfactorily complete description…
In any case, to add the few other details he was willing to provide:
Sometime around 9:45 PM, this gentleman was driving home from his late-shift job when he noticed a peculiar arrangement of blue lights which seemed to be drifting slowly southwards, towards Bridgeport, on the opposite side of Route 25. Parking on the soft shoulder of the off-ramp that connect to Daniels Farm Road, he watched as these lights abruptly changed direction, heading north. As he continued up the incline of Daniels Farm Road towards his home, he tried to keep track of this formation, becoming more and more intrigued by its unusual flight characteristics and peculiar appearance (he professed to be employed as an engineer at Avco-Lycoming).
Determined to get help in identifying this thing, the witness turned off Daniels Farm, onto Strobel Road, in order to fetch his father who lived near by. Together, the two of them were able to quickly relocate the formation of lights as it was passing, slow and soundless, over the Trumbull High School. Above the large field in back of the school the lights changed color, then blinked off all at once. Further attempts to locate them that evening by these two men proved futile.
Patricia Augeri
1985. Around 9p.m. Milwaukee Ave in Bethel Ct ( Fairfield County).Could have been in March but I remember a fairly warm night, so I always assume it was in the summer. I was starting a walk, and right above my yard I saw a large stationary set of white lights arranged in a boomerang fashion. No noise, no movement. The lights were larger than a planet and appeared fairly close overhead. I watched for ten minutes, continued walk, and when I got back to house e to tell my husband, they were gone.
Ed Mulvaney
I lived in Poughkeepsie NY from 1978 to 1987. I know most sightings were from 1981 and up but a friend and I were driving back from Brewster to Poughkeepsie in fall 1979 around 1am and had encountered an extremely large craft while traveling west on 84 coming down stormville mountain. As we drove, off to the right you can see across a large valley when my friend almost screamed what is that? Looking to the right about 1/4 to 1/2 miles was a craft as large as an aircraft carrier moving maybe 20 to 40 mph parallel to rt 84 heading west. I was eye level to it when we first saw it as we were coming down in elevation. From this view, it had the height or more than the trees it was passing over. It was easily 10 times that in length. I could see a dark structure with bright white lights at both ends with colored smaller lights that shifted colors.
I exited 84 onto the taconic state parkway northbound when about a quarter mile up we came across 15 to 20 cars pulled over on both sides of the highway in which I pulled behind one on the center median. We got out. Everyone was out of their cars already watching the skies to the south. There is a full grown forest to the south (and north) with a meadow from the parkway to around 75 yards to the tree line. We stood there for a minute or two when over the treeline this ship came into view. It appeared to be a dark metallic structure which was a huge triangular shape with a large oval shaped section on the belly. This had oval ports of chasing lights that were intense and multiple colors. The 3 points of the triangle had very bright white lights that changed intensity. It appeared to traveling 3 to 5 mph and took a minute for the whole craft to come into view. What struck me was the lack of noise, off to the north 2 or 3 miles away was a single engine plane heading south. I could hear the drone of the engine but not anything from this giant piece of hardware maybe 300 to 400 feet above me. It lumbered north and crossed right overhead, I was amazed at how much of the night sky it blocked from my view. It continued north and disappeared over the trees. The whole ordeal lasted maybe 3 minutes. Everyone started to get in their cars and drive away. I spoke to one gentleman and asked, what do you think? He looked at and opened his car door, got in and drove off. I don’t know what I saw, but it was not designed, assembled and flown by creatures from this planet…
Ed Mulvaney
Sorry, the direction of the craft from the northbound lane of the taconic state parkway was coming from the east and traveling west
Jack
I lived in the Hudson Valley between Lagrange and Verbank New York from 1983 to 1996. One night I saw the group of lights everyone describes as a UFO over near Route 82. I jumped in my car and drove from the valley up the hill to the parking area at Sky Acres airport overlooking the valley. I hopped out and turned off my car to watch “it” pass over. I could hear the faint sound of Ultralight airplane engines running as the group of lights drifted slowly by. I listened and heard the voice of pilots shouting back and forth instructions to maintain a tight accurate formation. It was a large group of ultralights with a single light beneath each aircraft. I thought it was a neat hoax and drove home. I have not heard of the “UFO” sitings until years later. I am an instrument rated pilot with many hours of night flying experience. What they did was very difficult to pull off just to take off and form up into an accurately placed group that maintained formation for a long period of time. Sky Acres airport is a remote private airport with few houses around so it was not so difficult to get away with it.
Mark
Jack,
Not discounting what you saw. However, there was no way what I saw were ultralights in patterns. They do not fly backward, and they do send off noise. They do not have smaller objects drop out and shoot off almost instantaneously in a direction.
Best,
Mark
Paul
June 1983 On top of the apple orchard on salt point rd.Warm summer night with my high school girlfriend .I seen a huge object in the clear skies.It moved so fast it bent light. It was amazing to watch as it could stand still yet in the blink of an eye be gone
Anonymous
In the summer of 1983, my Dad and I decided to take a ride from our house in Tomkins Cove, NY to enjoy the summer evening. I took the T-Tops off from the Camaro, and headed out with my Dad driving north up towards Bear Mountain State Park, and over the Bear Mountain Bridge. After crossing the bridge, I turned North onto the Bear Mountain Beacon Hwy, 9D. After a few minutes driving on 9D, I looked up through the T-top and saw a formation of lights. I was curious about the lights as I had never seen lights like that before in the night sky, so I pulled over into a turn out and got out of the car. There a very few houses in the area, and once we were out of the car, it was very dark. As I looked up into the sky, I saw a string of red and green lights, alternating in that pattern, red and green, and moving very slow from the south to the north. The lights were equally spaced in a straight line, and spanned about 150 feet across and approximately 500-1000 feet above the tree line. I watched the lights for about 20-30 seconds before they moved on northward over the tree line and out of sight. There was no sound at all coming from the lights nor did the lights appear to descend or change altitude during the time I observed them.
After some years had gone by I read what was reported to be ultralight aircraft flying in tight formation as the reason for the numerous sightings and reports. I would have to disagree with that premise. At the time I was not a pilot but now hold an Airline Transport Rating with two type ratings. I’ve accumulated over 5,000 hours of flight time and have flown in tight formation in high performance jets. Even if the ultralights; fashioned with bed sheets and lawn mower engines were tethered together with broom sticks, they would not have been able to maintain their position relative to one another, nor stay in the sky. I could go on and on to debunk the debunkers but I’ve had my say. Though this happened more than 30 years ago it’s fresh in my mind and for some time I’ve wanted to post my comments. Thanks for the opportunity.
I know Tony Capaldi….and he’s a good guy… but………how many ATC types do you know of who report observations.
geremy
i also witnessed the UFO in the hudson valley in the summer of 1983 at Hessian Lake Bear mountain. Was there with a friend and two girls at the time . It was around 9-10pm i have never discussed it before and me and my friend never talk about it. We were the only ones there at the lake all 4 of us and it Hovered over the lake about 100-200 feet above it. No sound….just lights. It is as everyone has described which makes me feel validated at what i witnessed because it was so unbelievable. It was huge …a football field long and very wide. Had a distinct dark metallic grey/black color and i was so scared that i grabbed on to a tree for dear life. One of the lights shined on me/white and the rest is is really not very memmorable as i think i went into a shock. It left silently and un noticably. When the girls got home they told thier moms and the called police and west point etc….no other sightings
no explanations
to this day i will never forget what i witnessed
Bill
you’re a muppet
Geremy
typo…..this happened in 1984 to me
Vinny
I witnessed the Hudson Valley UFO in July 1984, it was huge over a football field size. My sighting was almost directly over my head at approximately 10:20PM. It came over my neighbors house which was a two story colonial and it made his house look small. It was no more than 500 feet over his house and made no sound at all. It drifted ever so slowly and my sighting was approximately 3 to five minutes long. I was in the Air Force and I attempted to put clouds between the object and my line of site to see if it was one object and the clouds disappeared behind the object. Approximately two minutes into my sighting the most amazing thing happened the entire object started to revolve their were seven lights which all began to spin in a counterclockwise matter and the entire opbect then made an immediate ninety degree (90) turn and then drifted into a 15 – 20 mile an hour wind and disappeared. This was not a group of ultralight aircraft at the distance directly over my head I would have heard them one sounds like a loud lawnmower seven would have been very loud and this was a rather sparsely populated area in Kent NY.
Another thing why would ultralight pilots fly so tight in formation in the night above a development of homes?, why would ultralight pilots risk their licenses and fly over a Nuclear Power Plant a half our later which is restricted air space.
I close my eyes and I see this object like it was last night, the most incredible thing I ever saw.
** As a side story in Brewster High School they held a UFO conference as it was such a big deal at the time I met J. Allen Hynct who discussed the sighting and took reports. At that confrence whgich was covered by media from all over the area and outside the area they had a person give a UFO siting which took place in The United Kingdom, it was the first time they reported on the Randlesheim (Sorry on the spelling)) at the time which occurred in 12/1980. I will never forget this sighting.
Ed Mulvaney
I think from your description, I saw the same craft.
anonimous
I saw a circle disc in 74 in ft. Myers at the intersection of ortiz and palm beach blvd. travel ing east to west toward downtown ft.myers lights on the sauer blinked one at a time right to left .
Byron
Sounds like a plane not a saucer, you said lights flashing side by side one at a time? Those are what conventional aircraft have, you had to mistaking it
Dee Cee
A friend was driving me home and we pulled off the Bear Mtn Parkway in Peekskill NY with many other cars and this flew over us after hovering then disappeared. My entire family was outside looking her family was outside as well as relatives across town all described the same. My brother took pictures with a zoom lens film camera and they came blank. We all saw same thing. Crazy and I’ll never forget it. Don’t believe it was planes from Stormville when they tried to explain it away.
Donald caulley
I seen this spaceship looking object in somers newyork. It was off route 100 biggest thing I’ve ever seen. No noice what so ever. Bigger then a football field. I could have thrown a rock and hit it.
Kay M
My mom and i saw 3 ufos in mid wilshire los angeles.They were glowing like balls of light. They hovered briefly above a skyscraper office building. Then they sort of zapped away in an upward direction in the sky and were gone in a instant. I was only about 12 at the time. I had never studied or even cared about what a ufo would look like. As I got older, of course I became curious and looked into the stories told by others who have also seen them. Its strange that we have to seek out evidence to verify what our own eyes have seen, but those accounts have solidified my belief in ufos because they’re eerily similar. The way they look the way that they move; It’s very true.
Gil Carlson
THE ALIENS MAY BE CLOSER TO YOU THAN YOU THINK! The Complete Guide to Extraterrestrial Bases on Earth Hundreds of strange and mysterious locations that have revealed amazing, bizarre technology:
http://www.blue-planet-project.com/Alien-Underground-Bases.html
Gil Carlson
The document contains notes and drawings supposedly made by the scientist who visited various UFO crash sites, and this info was released before he disappeared.
http://www.blue-planet-project.com/