NUFORC Sighting 92525

Occurred: 1974-06-30 18:30 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2012-09-06 10:15 Pacific
Duration: 15 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: New York, NY, USA

Shape: Disk
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object

Glowing, bi-convex, disc-shaped craft cruised up the canyons of Manhattan in daylight for all to see.

Ninth Avenue UFO Incident New York City Summer 1974 The Complete Story I am an accomplished artist (painter) and actor (theatre and film) who has worked with Rod Steiger, Burt Reynolds, Peter Boyle, John Turturro and Dennis Farina among many others.

This is the story behind a UFO event that occurred in New York City during the summer of 1974.

It was totally blacked-out on the TV news and not reported (to the best of my knowledge) in the press at the time.

This event may well be one of the biggest cover-ups in the history of UFO sightings. This was not just some distant light in the sky, but an actual bi-convex craft, with an insignia on it, that came down and slowly (about 45 miles per hour), with multi-colored lights blinking in what appeared to be programmed sequences, literally cruised up the canyons of Manhattan in daylight for all to see.

I was working at the time for Joe Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theatre. I was helping to build and decorate sets for various productions. We were doing "Pericles" and "Merry Wives of Windsor" up in Central Park at the Delacorte Theatre there. I believe it was toward the end of June or the beginning of July. I wrote the exact dates down at the time, but I have been unable to find the paper with them on as this happened many years ago and I assume it has been lost or thrown out by accident.

I was asked to take a load of costumes downtown that needed last minute alterations. We loaded them into the Festival van and I drove out of the park and headed down Columbus Avenue which turns into Ninth Avenue farther down.

As I headed downtown at about 6:30 pm, I noticed what appeared to be very bright lights of some sort, way downtown, perhaps in the 20s or 30s. I thought it might be a large neon sign or something for a store opening or maybe a movie premiere of some sort.

As I got to the 60s near Lincoln Center I could tell that the lights were moving and coming closer up the avenue. As it got closer and closer, I couldn't believe what I was then able to see. It was a craft of some kind, very high tech-looking, heading directly for me. It was just above the tops of five-story buildings on the avenue and it spanned the width of the entire street It was circular in shape, but tilted up slightly so it looked like an ellipse. The convex bottom was glowing a bright, iridescent greenish-yellow, almost like neon, with a Saturn-like rectangular shaped circular band, around the circumference of the craft, of bright green, which had small multi-colored lights (red, yellow, blue, etc.) set in it. The band protruded from the craft all the way around. The lights were blinking in what appeared to be programmed sequences.

There were two large, very bright, red, beacon-like lights (one on each side of the craft), oval in shape (horizontally), which extended from the green circular band. They were flashing on and off somewhat slowly, almost like a pulse.

I kept saying to myself, "What the hell is that?!!" I just could not believe what I was actually seeing. I don't remember feeling any fear, though, because it looked so beautiful and non-threatening. And the blinking lights were moving in such pleasing patterns that they made me feel happy (perhaps that was their intended effect). I had the distinct feeling that they (whoever "they" were) were having some fun and just saying, "Hi!" There was an insignia on the bottom of the craft, on the curved part toward the front, not the exact middle of the bottom, which appeared to be recessed in the yellow made of thick black lines. I believe it was composed of three symbols, almost like a logo. I had never seen anything like them before. They looked like a foreign alphabet or symbol system of some kind as the craft passed directly over me as I drove beneath it, nearing the Lincoln Tunnel, in the 50s.

Many other people saw it. I could see people standing on the sidewalks looking and staring up at it. The sky was still light at that hour, so I could see it wasn't being held up by a helicopter or something like that. This was certainly not a blimp or a balloon of some kind. It looked solid and real.

It was still rush-hour and there was a lot of traffic trying to get out of the city through the tunnel, so I couldn't stop, and I also had only about an hour to get the costumes taken care of and get back up to the theatre in time for the opening. I didn't think they would take it well if the show was late going up and the reason I gave was that I had seen a UFO on Ninth Avenue! I figured that this incident would be all-over the news when I got home.

Later that evening, I rushed home thinking that this was big news and that they would probably even be pre-empting the regular shows to cover it.

When I got home I flipped on the TV and channel surfed around the dial, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. I remember thinking that was very strange and decided to wait for the 11:00 o'clock news. Again, at 11:00, there was only the usual local news, weather and sports. Nothing about the UFO, not even a denial, anywhere. I thought maybe they were trying to figure out how to deal with it and were delaying coverage. So, I went to bed thinking I'll check the newspapers early in the morning because this has got to be front page headline stuff.

When I awoke, I went down to the corner newsstand and checked the first few pages of several main newspapers -- there was nothing at all about it. Unless there was a small blurb in the back pages, but I doubt it. This started to instill some fear and paranoia in me, because I then realized that the government could totally censor and block or kill a story. And I always had believed we had a free press -- but after this I certainly didn't believe that anymore.

A few days later I was eating lunch near the prop department down at the Public Theatre when a gal I knew who worked in the department came in. She had almost straight, longish, light-blond, slightly reddish hair and freckles, and looked somewhat ethereal -- a very pretty gal. I said to her, "You're not going to believe what I saw fly up Ninth Avenue the other evening." Her face went ashen and she blurted, "I know what you're talking about, I saw it, too!" She said she had been shopping for props for "Wives" and had just come out of a store on West 57th Street between Eighth and Ninth, and that she and a couple of hundred other people saw it go by as it headed up the avenue. We discussed it a bit, and she said she had seen exactly the same craft as I had seen. I asked her if there was anything in the newspapers about it, but she said, no, she didn't see anything. And then she started to get a bit freaked-out and said, "I can't talk a! bout this anymore. I don't want to talk about it. I won't talk about it. I don't want to continue this discussion." She then abruptly rushed out of the room in a somewhat agitated state. Probably because the reality of it, and what it implied, had just really sunk in. I can't remember her name now, but I think it was Jane something -- but I can't say for sure. I intend, at some point, to check with the Festival for a list of people that worked in props that summer and see if I can locate her.

I now believe beyond any doubt whatsoever that UFOs are real.

I know that they're here, because I've seen them up-close -- and I know what I saw.

NUFORC Note:

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

Posted 2012-09-24