Aliens seemingly abound in our skies. Check out these freaky UFO sightings in New York if you want to learn about decades of V-shaped vessels, orbs, and more.
Whether life exists outside of Earth, beings building their own cultures and civilizations on planets we may never know, has long fascinated the world. But ask any New Yorker, especially one in the Hudson Valley, they’ll likely tell the same thing: UFOs are not only real but also freaky.
New York is one of the nation’s biggest hubs for UFO sightings, even if aliens aren’t synonymous with the Empire State like they are with Roswell, N.M. In fact, findings from a 2024 BetUS deep dive into UFO sightings nationwide, using years of data from the National UFO Reporting Center, found New York to have the second-highest number of sightings of any state. Arizona was first, while New Mexico was surprisingly ninth.
If you were born and raised in New York, this may not be too surprising. The Hudson Valley was full of UFO sightings in the 1980s, and the small town Pine Bush has become known as the “UFO Capital of the East Coast” over the years because of how many sightings have been reported there.
Don’t believe us? The town, which only has about 1,800 residents (via Data USA), has an entire museum dedicated to extraterrestrial life and hosts an event called the UFO Fair every year. The fair attracts thousands of people, who dress up in elaborate costumes and share stories of their own personal UFO sightings.
With so much otherworldly history baked into the state’s lore, we knew we needed to unearth everything we could about the freakiest UFO sightings in New York. Here’s what we found.
1. A group of power plant workers saw a large object in the sky
If we’re going to be comprehensive, we have to start with one of the wildest UFO sightings in New York—er, rather, a series of sightings. Something magnetic must have been in the air in the 1980s, attracting an otherworldly presence to the Hudson Valley. How else does one explain frequent sightings of giant ships in the sky?
The Hudson Valley sightings spanned several years, beginning in the early ‘80s and petering out as the decade progressed. Interestingly, the sightings seemed to peak around 1984 and 1985. For instance, a January 1985 report in White Plains’ The Journal News (via Newspapers.com) details how more than a handful of guards at a local power plant were stunned by a UFO sighting.
Speaking to The Journal News, one guard painted a rather intriguing picture, describing what he saw as “100 feet long,” adding that it “looked like helicopters in V-formation, made some noise and hovered 300 yards above the plant.”
2. A county clerk famously experienced one of the freakiest UFO sightings in New York at his home
Even government workers have been forthcoming with their experiences with sightings in the Hudson Valley. Dennis Sant, the Putnam County clerk for much of his career, was enthralled by a string of lights he saw in March 1983. He was at home in Brewster, and he saw what he called “a city of lights.”
He famously said, “It was a very large object. The structure of it was very dark gray, metallic, almost girder-type looking… The object seemed to be very silent. The lights were iridescent, bright, they stood out in the sky and three-dimension” (via Unsolved Mysteries). Others in the surrounding areas reported similar sightings over the next week, and they talk about those mid-’80s years to this day, including reminiscing in the comments section on Unsolved Mysteries.
3. Reddit users have reported UFO sightings in New York that are as big as a ‘football field’
Folks on Reddit still continue to recall their experiences with the Hudson Valley UFO sightings, too. “My sister saw this gigantic triangular craft, and she lives in Croton, NY. She said she looked up and it was black and moved slowly. It was as large as a football field,” one user recounted in early 2026, adding, “If you ask her about it today, she still gets goosebumps.”
Another user cited a “field”-shape experience as well. “My dad and my mom and two sisters stood outside for about 30 minutes watching a craft larger than a football field with lights completing an oval, hover over the trees and move slowly less than 100 feet high (just above the trees) and less than 50 feet from us,” the user shared
Others wonder why the sightings persisted over the Hudson Valley for a few years, when other parts of the nation weren’t seeing the same strange objects or light patterns. We may never know, it’s interesting to think about.
4. A ‘donut’ UFO has been seen across continents, including over New York City
Sometimes, the freakiest UFO sightings in New York aren’t the ones that have wild shapes or colorful lights. No, sometimes, they’re a simple orb with what looks to be a hole in the middle, leading folks to call it a “donut”-shaped UFO. In 2025, a Redditor posted a video of what appeared to be a UFO hovering over New York City, and the further the poster zoomed in, the clearer you could see a black dot or hole in the middle of the object.
The freakiest part? Others recognized it. “Holy s*** I never thought I would see this thing again. This was my first and only real experience I’ve ever had seeing a UFO. I live in Germany and I saw this strange donut shaped object years ago near a power plant,” one user replied to the initial post. Another user, this one from Brazil, posted a photo that they claim is of the same type of UFO. The user supposedly saw it in the same general timeframe as the original poster. Now how exciting—or terrifying, depending on your stance—is that?
5. In 2025, a pair of orbs in the sky allegedly changed shapes—then vanished
March 2025 was an interesting one for one Chester native. According to the National UFO Reporting Center (via WION), a local described seeing a bright pair of orbs in the sky move together, zipping along in unison. However, at once and without hitting the brakes, they veered in a different direction, which didn’t seem possible for a normal, human-made aircraft.
The eyewitness added that they physically morphed, leaving their orb shapes behind and becoming “dark, aerodynamic ovals” before vanishing for good. The thought of UFOs being able to change shapes sends chills down our spines, but maybe that’s just us!
6. John Lennon experienced one of the freakiest UFO sightings in New York with his girlfriend
Everyday New Yorkers aren’t the only ones seeing UFOs across the Empire State’s sky. No, among them is The Beatles founder and vocalist John Lennon, who claimed to have seen a large UFO in New York City in August 1974. According to The Beatles Story, Lennon saw the UFO while smoking a cigarette on a balcony. First, strange lights caught his eyes, and then he noticed where they came from: a circular, gray UFO.
Lennon’s then-girlfriend, music executive May Pang, then saw it, recounting to The Beatles Story, “the large, circular object was overhead with no noise. I started yelling it’s a UFO.” She described it as only being a few stories higher than them, and according to her, it remained rather low for a while, skimming some buildings and the nearby river before retreating to the heavens, where it presumably came from.
The moment proved inspirational for Lennon, who later wrote in his 1984 track “Nobody Told Me,” “Everybody’s smoking, and no one’s getting high / Everybody’s flying and never touch the sky / There’s UFOs over New York, and I ain’t too surprised.” Us either, Lennie. Us either.
7. You’ve heard of football field-shaped UFOs, but have you heard of ones that resemble pine cones?
A September 2026 Reddit comment sent chills down our spines when we read it. Eyewitnesses allege that UFOs come in all different shapes and sizes, and if aliens are real, there’s a chance that they have ships in shapes we can’t even imagine. And that’s precisely what made this comment so freaky.
The Reddit user recounted seeing a UFO in the ‘70s or ‘80s, not remembering exactly when but knowing it was during their childhood years. “It was diamond/pine cone/beehive shaped and bigger than the Bellevue psychiatric building hovering over the FDR as cars passed under it,” the user wrote. “There were 2 more like it hovering across on the Greenpoint Brooklyn side where 227 West is currently located but at the edge of the water.”
Unlike other freaky UFO sightings in New York that mention silent crafts, this user described a “humming machine sound” coming off of them. The scariest part? The user said that they saw these wildly shaped UFOs repeatedly, but they allegedly made the user forget to take a picture. “And if it had the power to make us forget[,] the power is astoundingly scary on their control of mankind.” Well, we’re officially closing our blinds tonight.
