NUFORC Sighting 07721

Occurred: 1999-05-10 22:15 Local
Reported: 1999-05-13 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 5-8 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Forest Hills, NY, USA

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object, Aircraft nearby

Very large, fast moving triangular shaped object seen moving from SW to NE over Metro NYC nightsky.

I live in Forest Hills, NY, which is located between LaGuardia and Kennedy Airports. Therefore, I see lots of flying objects in the sky, and if it's night I always look up at the planes. Well, on Monday, May 10, 1999, around 9:15 pm, I had just dropped off a letter into the postbox and was on my way to the supermarket, when something right above me caught my eye. At first when I looked at this object I thought "what a strange plane" it was. It took me about a second to realize that this was no airplane--at least like none that I have seen. It seemed to be triangular in shaped (not equilateral), with golden yellow lights at what would probably be the points, and moving very fast from the southwest to the northeast. The forward part of the object was not actually a point, but rather more to the left of a point--so I guess if you were to look at a triangle that was turned about 5-8 degrees to the right--the reulting top of it would be the front part of the object (I hope this makes sense). It made absolutely no noise. It was VERY large--though without a frame of reference I can't say exactly how large. Living in a metro area, I only see (on a really clear night) the major stars and planets, so, I couldn't tell if any stars were blocked by the object. The most peculiar thing about this object was that I felt like I was viewing it through water. The image shimmered like a mirage, or something like the transporter scenes from Star Trek when the people are midway in the transport process. The lights did not seem to be singular but rather arrays at each point; but this impression could be due to the shimmering effect. The viewing lasted about 5 seconds, at which time the damned thing simply blinked out. The night was crystal clear, not a single cloud in the sky so this was not a case of something being reflected off clouds. A couple of seconds after the object blinked out a commercial airplane came in (from west to east) for a landing at LaGuardia. I got the impression that this object was up very high, certainly lots higher than the incoming plane. Unfortunately, there were no other people near me at the time--well there might have been , but I simply couldn't take my eyes off this thing and it all happened so quickly--it would have been gone before I could get someone's attention.

Posted 1999-05-24