2001-08-16 - Seaside Heights, NJ - Light

2 lights over the Atlantic Ocean zipping around each other.

At the start of the boardwalk in Seaside Heights, NJ, I was standing on the pier that juts out over the ocean. My friend and I were talking and looking out at the sea & stars and there was an elderly couple standing next to us using one of those viewers mounted to the pier on a stand. We were watching what looked like 2 airplane lights moving toward eachother slowly, one from the S & one from the N. There was nothing strange about the lights at this point. Suddenly, the one on the right (moving S to N) accelerated and zoomed toward the one on the left. Then, the one on the left (moving N to S) circled very quickly around the other, almost like a fast mid-air dance, and shot off very fast up to the left (the opposite direction) at a diagonal and disappeared! The one that was moving S to N continued moving in that same northward direction at the same altitude and its original velocity as though nothing happened. Well my friend and I both said, "Did you ! see that?!", and the couple next to us quickly looked into the viewer at the area and the man said to his wife, "We'd better get out of here." and they left. This confirmed that they saw it too.

There was no sound associated with these objects and the color of the one on the left was slightly greenish while the one on the right had a slightly reddish orange color. The color difference helped to differentiate and keep track of the objects as they zipped around eachother.

I'd like to add that I'm a scientist and have spent years playing this over in my mind to try and figure it out but I don't have an explanation. There is an airforce base a few towns over so it's possible it was just some aircraft from there, but I haven't seen anything maneuver like this before or since.


((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that date of sighting is approximate. PD))