NUFORC Sighting 55551

Occurred: 2006-05-04 00:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2007-03-05 08:30 Pacific
Duration:
No of observers: 1

Location: New York City, NY, USA

Shape: Oval
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object

Photos Taken in New York on a Bright Day of Oval Craft Near Statue of Liberty

I am writing to send along a pair of photos which I think you will find interesting.

My mother-in-law, a very successful and down to earth woman was on vacation with her mother in New York in early 2006, and as part of their trip they were taking the tour to the Statue of Liberty.

Before boarding the boat to cross the harbor, they were standing on the shoreline, taking in the sights. My mother-in-law is an amateur photographer with a very nice camera (I’m not sure what kind off-hand unfortunately, only that it is a very expensive camera, and has been used many times for family functions and such, so I know that the quality of photos it takes is extremely high, and the camera is in perfect working order).

While she was taking photos of the harbor and the island across the way, she captured a metallic object hovering just above the water. Her goal was to take a photo of the statue from the shoreline and then take another photo of where they stood on the shore from the island once they crossed (she was playing with the idea of mirroring her position for fun). Once on the island, she took another set of photos, facing the spot they had stood before.

In both photos the object can be seen clearly. It was a bright, almost entirely clear day, sometime in the early afternoon and the object was in nearly the same position as before. It appears to have hovered in place for at least the length of the crossing, and if you examine the photos you can tell that it is the same object.

Oddly enough, this appears to be a chance UFO because she states that neither she nor anyone else saw anything the entire time (I don’t know exactly how long the ferry ride is, but I’m sure it’s at least twenty minutes or so including the time between photos) In fact, as she was showing us pictures, she started to skip past these as “silly” because she was having fun with the camera, and never noticed anything unusual about them until I bolted upright in my chair and asked her to let me have them. Once I pointed out the object, she said that she thought they were buoys (which she still thinks) My mother-in-law is not very receptive to things outside the norm (like I said, she’s very grounded), so I think she is dismissing these photos for that reason.

However, I have enlarged these photos many times, as far as I could without pixelating them all-together, and the object is not in any way connected to the water, much less floating in it. It is clearly metallic, and vaguely oval in shape, and as I said, it either stayed in place unnoticed for the length of the ferry ride, or reappeared, which seems less likely to me (but that is speculative). There seems to be an off-yellow/reddish "aura" or sheen around the object as well when the photo is enlarged. There doesn’t appear to be a large disturbance in the water around it, and there are definitely not any disturbances or ripples like those that would show up if it were floating in the water, with the water splashing against it; further indicating that it is just above the surface. Also, if you look at the photos, you can get a sense of scale against the images in the background. I’m not an expert, so I don’t want to hazard a guess, but if you look at the object as one point in a vector, or triangulate, it seems to be fairly small, but certainly not as small as a balloon or anything like that, and again, it remained in place far too long to be debris. As I mentioned the camera is in perfect order, and by the photos you can tell that this is not an imperfection in the lens or anything. Anyhow, those are some of my own observations using limited resources.

I am sending scans of the original photos along for your inspection. The first photo is much clearer, and easier to distinguish details in, but the second provides an interesting view of the object against the city in the background, and if you look you can see the dock where they took the first picture off-center to the right for perspective. These are completely untouched, and uncropped. I would be very interested in knowing your opinion of these pictures. Speaking for myself, as someone who has studied the UFO question for over twenty years, I am convinced that this is some sort of UFO, but I’m curious about it because it is very small, and it’s odd for it to be there for so long in the first place, much less without being noticed on such a clear day. It does look somewhat like other objects I’ve seen captured on film, but those have usually seemed larger. Anyhow, if you have another explanation, please let me know.




NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that the date of the incident is approximate. We have not received copies of the photos, yet. PD


Posted 2007-03-08

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