NUFORC Sighting 08421

Occurred: 1993-09-01 21:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 1999-07-21 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 20-30 minutes
No of observers: 4

Location: Lackawanna (suburb of Buffalo), NY, USA

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

3 Triangular craft, each identical to each other with a different colored light in each corner, circling over Lake Erie, followed by a group of helicopters.

I'm not sure how useful this information can be since I'm not certain as to the date on which it took place, but it may be useful to mention that the show Sightings was still a prime time program then, and that a few weeks after this sighting, the show featured and event which took place in Russia involving similar craft. Also, I was quite young at the time (I'm 21 now), and the accuracy of this report may seem questionable because of it, but in order to prevent any distortion of the facts the relevant information of this event was previously logged by me, and this record rather than my memory is the source of this account. It started at my friend's house, who's backyard connects to a back street adjacent to some train tracks, beyond which are mostly more train tracks, the Bethlehem Steel Plant, and then Lake Erie, so the view of the area above the lake was relatively unobstructed. I was in his yard with him and his two younger siblings, and just suggested that we go look for UFOs. This would seem more unusual if you didn't take my age into account, but it was the first time I'd ever made such a suggestion. I had a small pair of binoculars with me, and we began to search the skies. It was around 7 or 8 pm, and the sun was about to go down, so there was still some light. Almost immediately, I spotted something in the sky directly above. It appeared to be a satellite to me, with blinking lights that flashed in a triangular formation. This was evident as the second flash would blink next to the first, and the third would blink behind the other two. This was rather uninteresting to us, so we headed out into his back yard looking Westward over the lake. It was probably 20 minutes when I spotted something moving South. It looked like many of the other planes we had seen going back and forth, but a bit slower, and I watched it since there was nothing else in the sky to watch. After a minute or so, this got boring to me, and I began to search the other areas of the sky. When I looked back to where I would have expected the light to be, I couldn't find it. Instead, I saw a large (compared to the original light) colorful, seemingly swirling ball of light sitting motionless over the top of the steel plant. I wondered about it, but then decided that it was probably there all along, just some light in the steel plant parking lot that just looks weird. I searched the skies again, and looked back after a minute or so. The ball was gone, but the smaller light was back, moving along it's original course. As we watched it, for now we were more curious about it, it seemed to be slowing down. When it appeared to have stopped, it soon became obvious that in fact it had turned and was headed in our direction. Through the binoculars, it appeared to be saucer shaped, with a flat bottom, thin edges, and a bulge in the middle. As it drew nearer, it began slowly to turn towards the North. It gradually came almost directly overhead, at which point we could see that it was triangular in shape. In each corner was a round, flat light, each of a different color. What these colors were, I forget, but they were plain bright colors (I'm pretty sure one was red, the others may have been blue, green, or yellow). Also, the craft was being followed by 2 others just like it. They moved extremely slowly, and made no sound. This made it hard to determine it's size, but I was under the impression that they were approximately as long as a passenger jet. Through the binoculars, the back end of them seemed hazy as if intense heat was being discharged. They continued a smooth turn and headed back towards the lake. A group of helicopters appeared from around the mainland and chased the crafts out over the lake.

Posted 1999-08-10