Hudson Valley
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 📍 Place
Contents 5
| Type | Place |
|---|---|
| On the Timeline | 3 events, 1984–2001 |
The Hudson Valley of New York State, north of New York City, was the scene of a wave of UFO sightings from 1983 to 1984, when thousands of residents of Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties, and neighbouring Fairfield County in Connecticut, reported huge, silent, V- or boomerang-shaped formations of lights. The wave was investigated by astronomer J. Allen Hynek and is widely attributed to a group of pilots flying light aircraft in tight formation.[1][2]
The sightings
Reports began in March 1983 and continued mainly through the summer of 1984. The New York Times described witnesses seeing objects about the size of a football field, "usually in a V-shape or a circle", silent and lit with white, red or green lights, that seemed to hover and then shoot away. Residents filmed rotating lights in Brewster on 24 July 1984, and police received many calls. Civilian groups such as Citizens Against UFO Secrecy said they received hundreds of reports.[1][3]
UFO researcher Philip Imbrogno said security guards at the Indian Point nuclear power plant on the Hudson River saw a huge object hover over the plant on 14 June and 24 July 1984; the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it had no documentation of such a sighting.[1]
Explanation
State police and plant security attributed many sightings to pilots flying small Cessna aircraft in close formation from Stormville Airport, switching their lights on and off together. A state police sergeant said five or six light planes were involved, and an FAA official noted that pilots could fly as close together as they felt safe; Discover magazine reported wingtips only inches apart. Skeptic Brian Dunning has written that the pilots called themselves "the Martians", and that formation flights combined with errors of perception and memory explain the wave.[1][2]
Some witnesses and researchers, including Hynek, who called the events "absolutely weird", argued that aircraft could not explain all the reports, such as objects hovering silently for long periods.[1][4]
Legacy
Hynek, Imbrogno and journalist Bob Pratt published Night Siege: The Hudson Valley UFO Sightings in 1987, and the case was featured on Unsolved Mysteries in 1992.[1][4]
On the UAP Timeline
- Hudson Valley sightings (28 June 1984) — Hudson Valley residents report a boomerang-shaped craft flying at treetop level.
- Indian Point nuclear plant sighting (1984) (24 July 1984) — Guards at the Indian Point nuclear plant reportedly see a UAP as security systems fail.
- NIDS black triangle study (3 November 2001) — Over 150 black triangle sightings are tallied at a NIDS meeting.
References
- 1984 Hudson Valley UFO sightings — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Brian Dunning, "The Hudson Valley UFO Mystery", Skeptoid #598 (2017) · skeptoid.com · archived copy
- "Strange Sights Brighten the Night Skies Upstate", The New York Times (25 Aug 1984) · nytimes.com · archived copy
- "Examining some of Connecticut's most spectacular UFO sightings", CT Insider (2021) · ctinsider.com · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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