"UFO" over Niagara Falls : Video

An object was apparently filmed over Niagara Falls on Saturday 17th October 2009 and seen by multiple witnesses.

Given the contents of the video and the various witness reports, I wonder if this was a promotional balloon/blimp (possibly connected with, and tethered to, the nearby casino or hotels??) which reflected the nearby spotlights.



The website of the Niagara Falls Review has THIS STORY, which includes the following:

UFO over Niagara Falls?

Residents, tourists report strange flashing object hovering over tourist district

What the heck were those lights in the sky Saturday night?

That's the question scores of Niagara Falls residents and tourists were left to ponder after seeing an unusual, spectral pattern in the night sky over the tourist district for a period between 9 p.m. and midnight.

Some say the unidentified phenomenon looked like a metallic object hovering motionless and without sound.

"At first it look like a circular tear in the sky," said Joshua Green, who lives on Robinson Street. "When the spotlights from the casino would rotate, they would hit the object . . . and it would illuminate the object and create a flash coming back down.

"I had never seen anything like that before."
...
Scott Jordan wrote: "When the four search lights that light up the night sky (over Niagara Falls) came together it appeared like there was something in the sky and it was reflecting the light."

A comment on the news webpage states:

I thought it was really weird, like an escaped weather balloon.

But I think it was in the same place all the time?

Comments on the Youtube page for the relevant video include:

vrsixbora

i watched it from the 420 on my way home, and you could see it clear as day, without the lights hitting it.

it was completely silver and reflective....no distinct shape to it..

and

crankybull73
We were waiting for our hotel shuttle bus and for the 20-30 mins that we were waiting it did not move or make any noise, but then again it was very high in the sky.

[edit on 19-10-2009 by IsaacKoi]

Swamp Gas-No
Weather Balloon- No
Venus - No
Unusual weather conditions - No
Military Flares - No
It was Falcon Heene ladies and gentlemen fresh from his adventures in the attic

I guess the spotlights must be illuminating the UFO accidentally. I've no idea what the line coming down might be. Like the witnesses, I'm totally intrigued and baffled by this phenomenon. It's completely inexplicable.

WG3

So do they have night time balloon flights over the falls?

Should be easy to find out I imagine.

I've found one hot air balloon business that does Niagra Falls:

www.balloonsoverletchworth.com...

Well, the first thing that came up to my mind was a weather ballon with one of those commercial GPS tracking devices.

But the light seems too blue. Usually those devices have a very bright (and a single lamp) white light.

The light blinks in intervals of 5 seconds, what also happens with GPS location devices. But something seems odd about the light itself to me... (unless it is inside the ballon).

looks like a light used to warn low flying aircraft of a structure sticking up in the air, like power lines or an antenna.

reply to post by jimmyx

looks like a light used to warn low flying aircraft of a structure sticking up in the air, like power lines or an antenna.

These lights are usually red - we would need a place and direction I think.

Look closely... appears there may be a cable running up to it. Probably a balloon of some kind.

reply to post by majestictwo


The warning lights usually are white strobing lights. The red ones usually give you the shape/size of the structure/building.

In some cases the strobe lights are red, like you said, but at least where I usually fly they are white.

There is a large balloon that is tethered near the falls and is used for sightseeing. It does remain up at night but I don't think it is as high as what I see in the video. I don't know.

reply to post by Tifozi


Only thing to bear in mind there is that with artificial lights cameras often have problems with white-balance (see: www.urbanfox.tv... , en.wikipedia.org... and www.cambridgeincolour.com... ).

In my experience white balance problems occur particularly at night, so I've had to set and measure white balance manually in order to get something approximate to what I'm actually seeing. Artificial lights actually give out different frequencies of light than how we perceive them. A lot of consumer cameras (still or movie), and higher end gear, won't properly adjust white balance at night, sometimes leading to totally misleading colours (versus how we perceive them).

So I wouldn't draw to many conclusions about the colours in the video without independent witness corroboration.

There's another report here:

ufoclearinghouse.webs.com...

I was walking home and noticed in the sky this orange object moving very fast and then exited the atmosphere because it dissapeared. The object was visible for no longer than 5 seconds. 15 minutes later I noticed an atmospheric phenomenon along with my mother because I showed her. It looked like there were these lines in the sky which the one was lighting up very well when the city spotlights that pollute the sky with light hit the right angle (because the light is 4 spotlights that rotate) only for a second on each rotation of ~15 seconds does the one line light up. There was some patterns I could barely where the lines were coming from so there was a lot more I could not see. Because of light pollution its not that visible except for that one that got the spotlight on when it had the right angle with the rotation. The others were too high in the air too recieve much light? Its as if its the reminisce of whatever I observed and left in the atmosphere. I do not have a camera to take a picture. Its slowly dissapearing but still visible 30 minutes later faintly. Should this have been reported at all or is this clearly a meteroite.

Same date and approximate time/location, possibly totally unrelated.

There's another article about the same sighting:
Mysterious lights spotted over Niagara Falls
it's identical to the one of the OP, but it shows a picture:

Caption: Amanda Myslik took this submitted photo of the strange illumination over the falls Saturday night.

Hopefully, some more videos and pictures have been taken on Saturday night

Another picture via flickr:

www.flickr.com...

Only 0.5mp, and edited in Windows Live Photo Gallery, but aside from that EXIF complete.

I'm afraid I've forgotten how to embed images, so if someone wants to follow-up with the actual image feel free. They look distinctly beam like that picture, as if generated by spotlights.

I just wanted to mention that there actually is a restaurant (diner?) called "The Flying Saucer Drive-In" in Niagara Falls. If the UFO in the sky really was an advertising blimp or some stunt to create a UFO buzz, perhaps it has something to to with this place?

Just a thought, that's all.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/53c183cbc3b6.jpg[/atsimg]
Source

"The Flying Saucer Drive-In" also has its own website:
www.fallscasino.com...

With no point of reference the video does not mean much to me. One thing kinda strange was that it was reflecting light that was being put on it which would be exactly what a mylar baloon would do. I saw this comment on a news site here
www.niagarafallsreview.ca...
thought it was funny just to see the mental caliber of people

How does light reflect light? Is that possible?

reply to post by ziggystar60

I think there's a whole number of things that need to be cleared up re. direction/location of sighting. Particularly given the 'objects' potentially over a large body of water. Which can help generate quite dense but variable low lying cloud/fog, which could mean given the right conditions search light type beams could light up unevenly as they hit areas of dense and less dense cloud or fog. Giving the impression of reflecting from a non existent object.

The drive-in is quite some distance from the falls, so they'd have to raise it quite close to the falls:

/yf92gxd (Google Maps)

If that turns out to be the case hopefully they've had to fill out some paperwork, and it'll come out.

Another possibility could be the Skylon tower. I don't know enough about the area to know what is visible from where (particularly if lit by ground search lights and/or with cloud/fog).

My husband and I took several pictures of the lights. Here is the link to the best shot.

www.flickr.com...

Rick and Kathy
Niagara Falls Ontario

A follow up news piece in The Niagura Falls Review (19th October 2009):

"What was in the skies above Niagara on Saturday"

www.niagarafallsreview.ca...

Well after reading all the reports and watching the movie a few times, I'm not convinced this was anything mundane. After all, a metallised mylar blimp fastened with a tether to some eatery or other isn't very convincing. And the moving spotlights that seemed to keep flashing onto it. Who the heck uses spotlight beams to advertise stuff - it's just too much to swallow. The possiblity that there was a tethered blimp AND spotlights around the same time that hundreds of punters were in the area is just too big a coincidence IMO. This has to be put into the unexplained catagory for me. What about Earth Lights? I understand the vibrations of rocks can generate optical phenomena. Maybe Niagra has fault lines running right under the falls? That's much more probable I reckon.

WB3