2008: UFO Sightings in New York – Article

We know what you’re thinking: Who reports UFOs these days except a buncha looney-boonie hick extremists and reality-TV nutjobs? Um, a lot of New Yorkers, apparently.

“We get more UFO reports out of New York City than any other part of the state,” says James Bouck Jr., New York State director of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). “It amazes me.” In the past five years, hundreds of alleged sightings have been logged with MUFON, UFO Evidence and the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC), some of which, of course, have been ruled out as hoaxes or explained away by astronomical phenomena. Here are a few of the kookiest highlights.

One LES resident filed a report on May 15, 2007, describing a “disc-shaped UFO.” It allegedly hovered in the sky for 30 minutes before drifting behind a building.

A July 30, 2006, report describes an eerie photo that a man took while hanging out on the Coney Island boardwalk. It revealed an elliptical object with a black core surrounded by a “blackish-gray haze.” The next night, a woman was lying on the Coney Island beach and reported seeing 15 fast-moving, green-and-white lights zigzagging across the sky for half an hour.

On January 8, 2007, NUFORC received a report that three low-hovering objects were captured live during Fox News’ coverage of the Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration. The account alleged that the objects “generated amazement, fear and a degree of panic.” A separate report from the previous day claimed that a group at Broadway and 73rd Street saw “small glowing or metallic spheres” moving across the sky. The viewer was “freaked out” enough to retreat into the subway.

On Christmas Eve, 2007, an anonymous viewer in Astoria, Queens, reported seeing “something dull, fast [and] wingless” streaking through the clouds over the East River. Santa and his reindeer, perhaps? Not unless Saint Nick could travel 20 times faster than a plane.

On December 21, 2007, a nursing student had a close encounter that turned her from a skeptic to a believer. “I was sitting on my couch talking to my boyfriend and petting my cat when the hair on the back of my neck stood up and my cat flipped out,” she told NUFORC. She looked out the window of her Flushing, Queens, apartment and allegedly saw a triangle-shaped object dotted with bright red lights.

source & references:

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/articles/i-new-york/29547/ufo-sightings