Morristown UFO hoax
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🛸 Case
Contents 6
| Type | Case |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Morristown hoax |
The Morristown UFO hoax was a series of red lights seen in the night sky over Morris County, New Jersey, in early 2009. They caused numerous 911 calls and wide news coverage. On 1 April 2009 two local men, Joe Rudy and Chris Russo, revealed that they had made the lights with flares tied to helium balloons. They called it a social experiment to show how unreliable eyewitnesses and UFO investigators can be.[1][2]
The sightings
The first lights appeared on the evening of 5 January 2009, between about 8:15 and 9:00 p.m., over Hanover Township, Morristown, Morris Plains, Madison and Florham Park. Police received several 911 calls, and a Morristown police lieutenant alerted the local airport. Control tower staff saw the lights but could not identify them, and nothing showed on radar.[1] The lights were seen again on 26 and 29 January and on 7 and 17 February.[1]
Witnesses described lights that rose and fell in sequence, held formation and seemed to move against the wind.[1] A pilot who filmed them said he had never seen anything like them in 20 years in aviation.[1] On 17 February nine lights were seen, traffic slowed on Interstate 80 as drivers stopped to watch, and the county prosecutor's office contacted the military, the Federal Aviation Administration and state security agencies.[1]
Explanations offered
Before the hoax was revealed, explanations ranged from alien craft and spiritual phenomena to a secret military project or a surveillance blimp.[1] Morristown police said they were reasonably certain the lights were flares attached to balloons, but many witnesses disagreed.[1] Peter Davenport of the National UFO Reporting Center said he did not believe they were aircraft.[1] Skeptical columnist Benjamin Radford had argued soon after the first sightings that the lights closely resembled a 2008 hoax in Phoenix using flares and balloons, but many people still preferred an extraordinary explanation.[2]
The reveal
Rudy and Russo published their account online through Skeptic magazine and released videos of their preparations and launches.[1][2] They said they had gone into the woods with a helium tank, five balloons, five flares, fishing line, duct tape and a video camera. They tied each flare to a 3-foot balloon on about five feet of fishing line before releasing them.[2] They had even given a television interview as supposed witnesses before revealing the hoax.[1]
Prosecution
On 7 April 2009 the two men pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct under local ordinances. They were fined $250 each and ordered to do 50 hours of community service.[1][3] The prosecutor said the flares had been a fire hazard and could have interfered with air traffic at Morristown Airport.[3]
Reaction
Newsweek science writer Sharon Begley praised the stunt for fooling UFO experts. MUFON's New Jersey director, George Filer, criticised the use of flares because of the fire risk.[1] The Center for Inquiry raised the question of whether skeptics should ever hoax the public to make a point.[1] The episode has since been covered by television series including UFO Hunters, whose host rejected the flare explanation before the reveal, and in a 2021 Vice documentary narrated by the hoaxers.[1]
References
- Morristown UFO hoax — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Benjamin Radford, "UFO Hoax Was a Social Experiment", Live Science (April 2009) · livescience.com · archived copy
- "NJ Men Fined $250 for UFO Hoax", Live Science · livescience.com · archived copy
This page was last edited on 31 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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