1987-07-21 - New York, NY - Oval

above-city sighting of oval-shaped U.F.O. during meteor shower

Please confirm the date entered above is the second to last Tuesday in the month of July. I was on the roof of my mother's apartment building, located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. That's right, Brooklyn, New York just a few miles outside of the Big Apple itself.

If memory serves, I believe I was locked out of our top floor apartment, having misplaced my keys. So I had to wait for my mother to return from having dinner with my father from Chinatown on the roof of my mother's tenement building. I recall it being a very nice night, kind of on the cool side, with low clouds at approximately 5,000 to 7,000 feet of altitude.

Aside from the low, scattered clouds, the night sky was clear as a bell, and much of the stars were highly visible that night. What particularly had my utmost attention that night, was the elevated degree of meteorological activity that was taking place.

Okay, so here I go. I witnessed an unusually low-flying "shooting star" decend toward the east, when to my amazement I noticed, just a second (or two) later, a oval-shaped object emitting a soft-white glow behind it as if it were in pursuit. In the next few minutes (perhaps for as much as the next 15-30 minutes or so) there were quite a number more of low-flying meteorites. One was of sufficient size, or perhaps it streaked low enough that I could actually hear it wisking through the atmosphere. The sound was brief, lasting approximately a second or so. From different directions in the night sky, I observed the same unidentified oval-shaped object fly in pursuit of several falling meteorites.

By the time much of this increased meteorolgical activity was over, my mother had returned. I called her and told her to come up to the roof quickly. I then told her what I had been seeing, upon which she stayed with me for a while to gain the chance of possibly witnessing what I had seen for herself. Within a few minutes, another meteorite streaked in the distance to the east, after which both my mother and I witnessed the U.F.O. in pursuit.

Before the U.F.O. "disappeared" and ended its low altitude airshow, it flew towards both my mom and I on our left as we faced east. (Something makes me recall there being two this time, but I can not recall for sure.) It flew level and then took a 30 to 45 degree ascent into a cloud bank and disappeared for what I thought was for good.

Later on that evening, at approximately 00:30 hours, my brother had come up to the roof after having heard what was going on to catch a glimpse and mostly to poke fun. He was with me, when we both witnessed a distant point-of-light, that caught our eyes. From its distance and apparent height, it could have been a plane at high altitude or a star by appearance. Except, this "star" started moving irregularly across the sky and changed its relative position by a great distance. It is my belief that this object was very high up in the sky or possibly even outside our planet's atmosphere.

My brother dismissed what we both saw as OUR eyes playing tricks on us. On some level, I wish I could have done the same. I am glad for my mother having witnessed the U.F.O. flying at low altitude with me, as I needed someone to affirm that I was actually witnessing these crafts, right here, above the metropolis of New York.

I wish I could estimate the size of the craft to some degree of accuracy. In the night sky and at a distance, it is a bit difficult to get an idea as to an object's relative size without some common frame of reference. What I can say is that the U.F.O. conducted manuvuers that only a fighter jet would be capable of performing. Its movements were swift and precise, but not necessarily beyond the means of a fighter jet. However, the U.F.O. performed all of the above flying activity at what appeared to be supersonic speeds. Not only did I not hear a sonic boom, I did not hear the craft produce an audible sound of any kind. Nor did I notice even a neglible loss of speed when it finally made its ascent into the cloud bank from which it did not reappear.