Morristown UFO hoax
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Contents 8
Summary
The Morristown UFO hoax was a social experiment involving floating red lights in the night sky over Morris County, New Jersey, on five nights in January and February 2009. Two local men named Joe Rudy and Chris Russo created the lights by tying red road flares to helium balloons to show how unreliable eyewitness accounts and UFO investigators are. After revealing the hoax with video evidence, both men were given $250 fines and 50 hours of community service in April 2009.
| Type | Case (hoax / social experiment) |
|---|---|
| Dates | 5, 26 and 29 January; 7 and 17 February 2009 |
| Place | Morris County, New Jersey (Hanover Township, Morristown, Morris Plains, Madison, Florham Park and elsewhere) |
| Hoaxers | Joe Rudy (28) and Chris Russo (29) |
| Method | 15-minute red road flares hung from 3-foot helium balloons on fishing line |
| Revealed | 1 April 2009, via Skeptic magazine |
| Penalty | $250 fines and 50 hours' community service each (7 April 2009) |
| Also known as | Morristown hoax |
The Morristown UFO hoax was a series of floating red lights seen in the night sky over Morris County, New Jersey, on five nights in January and February 2009, which prompted dozens of 911 calls, alerts to air traffic controllers and wide news coverage. On 1 April 2009 two local men, Joe Rudy and Chris Russo, revealed with video evidence that they had made the lights by tying road flares to helium balloons. They called it a social experiment to show how unreliable eyewitness accounts — and UFO investigators — can be.[1][2]
The first sighting
The lights first appeared on the evening of Monday 5 January 2009, between about 8:15 and 9:00 p.m., with sightings concentrated in Hanover Township, Morristown, Morris Plains, Madison and Florham Park. At 8:28 p.m. Hanover Township police received the first of several 911 calls, and neighbouring departments were also flooded with calls. Morristown Police Lieutenant Jim Cullen warned Morristown Airport of a possible hazard to aircraft; control tower staff saw the lights but could not tell what they were, and nothing showed on the airport's radar.[1]
Witnesses
In Hanover Township, 11-year-old Kristin Hurley was the first in her family to notice the lights — three grouped together and a pair some distance away, moving silently and slowly before disappearing one by one. Her father, Paul Hurley, a pilot, said they were not planes: "I have been in the aviation industry for 20 years and have never seen anything like this." The family's video was shown on many news broadcasts, including Fox News. A Morristown man told the Daily Record he saw an L-shaped formation oscillating in the sky that "didn't seem man-made", and Hanover Township's health officer, walking his dog in Madison at 8:38 p.m., said the lights left no trails, held formation, sometimes seemed to move against the wind, and then moved in three different directions.[1][2]
Rudy and Russo themselves told News 12 New Jersey a fictitious account of seeing the lights while driving on Hanover Avenue in Morris Plains, with Russo saying the lights "literally zip over our car" and Rudy that they seemed "to ascend and descend almost in a sequence". Their videos and photos were posted on news sites, blogs and YouTube.[1]
The repeat performances
To build media attention, the pair repeated the stunt four more times over different parts of the county, on 26 and 29 January and 7 and 17 February. The biggest display came on 17 February, when nine red lights were reported travelling in formation. "Numerous" 911 calls came in from Morris Plains, Morristown, Morris Township, Hanover, Denville, Parsippany, Montville and the county dispatch centre. Air traffic controllers at Morristown Airport estimated the lights at about 2,500 feet, moving north. On Interstate 80 in Denville at 8:40 p.m., traffic slowed as drivers watched, and some pulled over to film the lights, which one witness said were scattered at first and then lined up. Another witness, Ray Vargas, said, "If it's a hoax, it's a real good hoax," adding that the lights seemed "almost as if they were communicating with each other".[1]
Captain Jeff Paul, spokesman for Morris County Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi, said federal authorities feared the objects might threaten flights on final approach to Newark Liberty International Airport, and the Federal Aviation Administration said it would issue an advisory to aircraft. The prosecutor's office confirmed with the military that no military flights were in the area, and also contacted the FAA, the state Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, and the New Jersey State Police intelligence centre.[1]
Explanations offered
Before the hoax was revealed, explanations ranged from alien spacecraft and supernatural phenomena to helicopters carrying cargo, a surveillance blimp, a secret military project, sky lanterns released at a celebration, or an elaborate hoax. Morristown police said they were "reasonably certain" the lights were red flares attached to balloons, but many residents disagreed. Peter Davenport, director of the National UFO Reporting Center, told News 12 that the FAA requires aircraft to have a single red light on the left wingtip, and said he did not believe the lights were aircraft.[1]
The day after the first sighting, the skeptical writer Benjamin Radford published a point-by-point analysis noting striking parallels with a 2008 hoax in Phoenix using flares tied to balloons, and concluded the New Jersey lights were almost certainly a copycat. Many people rejected this; some UFO enthusiasts claimed that the lights' movements ruled out flares, and one writer said thousands had seen "a giant, solid, triangular object" fly over them. The History Channel series UFO Hunters, presented by Bill Birnes, publisher of UFO Magazine, investigated the 5 January sighting, said it had tested the flare theory and found it implausible, and concluded from the footage that the lights moved "without any independent movement" — "you can almost make out a frame".[1][2]
The reveal
On 1 April 2009 Rudy and Russo published an article on the Skeptic magazine website explaining how and why they had carried out the hoax, as a "social experiment on how to create your own media event surrounding UFO sightings… to show everyone how unreliable eyewitness accounts are, along with investigators of UFOs". Knowing that hoax confessions are often doubted, they had documented the whole thing on video, including their preparations, the launches and the media coverage that followed.[1][2]
They explained that they went into the woods with a helium tank, five balloons, five flares, fishing line, duct tape and a video camera. They filled each 3-foot balloon with helium, tied about five feet of fishing line to it, and taped a flare to the other end, then lit the 15-minute flares and released them. The lights did move independently, carried by the wind, and there was no frame of any kind. "If a respected UFO investigator can be easily manipulated and dead wrong on one UFO case," they wrote, "is it possible he's wrong on most (or all) of them?"[2]
Prosecution
Prosecutor Bianchi took what he called a "measured approach", filing disorderly-persons charges rather than indictable offences, while criticising the men for wasting police resources and creating a fire hazard and a risk to air traffic at Morristown Airport. On 7 April 2009 Russo, 29, and Rudy, 28, pleaded guilty to municipal ordinance charges of disorderly conduct and were each fined $250 and ordered to do 50 hours of community service at the Hanover Recreation Commission. "If you were a pair of 17-year-olds, I would tell you to grow up," Judge Michael Carlucci told them. "You're not 17."[1][3]
Reaction
Reactions were mixed. Newsweek's science writer Sharon Begley praised the hoax for fooling UFO "experts" and believers, ending her article "Nicely done, guys." George Filer, New Jersey state director of the Mutual UFO Network, criticised the use of flares, which could have started a fire. The Center for Inquiry asked whether skeptics should ever hoax the public to prove a point, or whether doing so was a breach of ethics that ultimately harmed the skeptical position. Radford wrote that the episode showed "you can't always believe what you see, either in the skies or on TV".[1][2]
The UFO Hunters episode remained on the series' homepage. On 1 April 2015 truTV featured the hoax on Best Hoaxes Ever, and in July 2021 an episode of Vice Media's Fakes, Frauds and Scammers, "How We Staged a UFO Hoax", was narrated by Rudy and Russo themselves.[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
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia article “Morristown UFO hoax”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
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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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