NUFORC Sighting 85940

Occurred: 2011-12-18 23:40 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2011-12-18 21:52 Pacific
Duration: about 10 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: New York City (Astoria; Queens), NY, USA

Shape: Other

Two aircraft wider than jumbo jets, no lights, flying North to South, in the vicinity of LaGuardia Airport.

UFOs over Queens! I want to type this out while it's still fresh in my mind. I am not joking here, at the same time I don't think it's ET.

I was just taking the garbage out, at 11:40pm and looked up at the sky like I always do to see the position of the planets and such--because I'm an amateur Astronomer. And there I saw two identical, ribbon like objects appearing to be light in color, each wider than a jumbo jet, no lights, gliding North to South.

If I had to compare them to known aircraft, I would say they were like giant flying wings, or super wide wing span gliders--but they almost appeared to fly and look more like parasails. They weren't point towards the front at all like a chevron, just one super wide strip of aircraft, more like parenthesis shaped.

When they were nearly overhead they were easy to see, and as they passed they became more and more difficult to see due to the NYC haze. Basically, they flew between my location on 35th Street in Astoria and LaGuardia Airport.

I listened for engine noise and thought I could hear jets, but I'm near LaGuardia so of course I hear jets all the time. It would be more remarkable if I didn't hear the faint sound of jet engines.

No other aircraft in the sky that I could see from my position, certainly none displaying their lights.

I could not tell how high they were flying due to the fact that they were unrecognizable aircraft with no lights, but they were not at high altitude. If I had to guess, I would say they were just high enough to clear the Manhattan skyline if they wanted to.

One of them moved straight across North to South, while the one next to it appeared to bank towards the Southeast for a moment before returning to it's position along side the accompanying craft.

They were not moving fast or sporadically. They were obviously being piloted.

Very rarely I see military planes flying in twos along this route, but these were not airplanes of any design I've ever seen--even given my overall love for the sky.

15 minutes ago.

I'd say it took about five to eight minutes for them to move across my piece of sky.

I would have run in to get my camera and take a picture or video, but it was very dark and the objects would be gone before I had a chance to take the video.

NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that the date of the sighting is approximate. PD

Posted 2012-01-12