PATERSON, N.J. (WPIX) — A pattern of mysterious lights over New Jersey on Monday night caused a bit of a stir with residents on the ground trying to make sense of the unidentified flying objects.
Resident Louis Stevens, who was on the ground filming the spectacle, said he lost count of what he called “flying white circles” that, he said, morphed into different shapes.
“You see it on YouTube and it’s always somewhere out in the Nevada desert somewhere,” Stevens said. “The shock of it is more like, is this really real? I mean, are we really looking at what we think we looking at?”
The mysterious lights dazzled the skies over downtown Paterson for more than five minutes, Stevens said. The objects ended their run over nearby Garret Mountain.
NewsNation affiliate WPIX sent the video to the Federal Aviation Administration for review by an official, who checked in with local air traffic controllers.
The FAA said “nothing was reported.”
While theories on the ground are now running rampant — especially after a government report released over the summer acknowledging that intelligence officials cannot explain such sophisticated movements in the skies — one likely scenario involves drones.
“At first, I was kind of puzzled,” Victor Chu, a New York-based drone professional who watched the video, said. Chu is the founder, director and executive producer of Sky Tech One, a drone videography and photography company behind numerous award-winning productions. Based on his knowledge, Chu believes the flying objects were part of a practice session for a drone light show that went wrong.
“If you look at any light show, they are all synced together and they are controlled by a computer,” he said. “If you look at the video, you will see that they are maintaining a formation for the most part, even though it’s kind of… scrambled a little bit.”
Whether they were drones or something else entirely remains unclear. The city’s Public Safety Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Officials with the FAA urge members of the public who do see this type of activity to report it to the National UFO Reporting Center. Those who feel that said activity is putting them or their property in danger are urged to call local law enforcement.