Large 'Boomerang-Shaped' Object Spotted Near New York Airport Remains Unidentified, Pentagon Says
Air Traffic Control personnel at Stewart International Airport in New York's Hudson Valley witnessed the mysterious object in June and reported the incident to the Federal Aviation Administration.
By Dustin Slaughter (@DustinSlaughter)
A large, unidentified craft appeared in the vicinity of a small airport in New York’s Hudson Valley earlier this year, according to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) document obtained by The UAP Register.
The incident occurred on the afternoon of June 3, 2024, approximately four miles southwest of New York Stewart International Airport. Air Traffic Control personnel witnessed the approximately 50-foot-long object appear and then remain stationary at 4,000 feet altitude for nearly one hour “before disappearing into the clouds,” according to the report. Notably, airport radar was unable to detect the object. The FAA report is provided below.
Facility observed a UAP 4 NM SW of SWF beginning approximately 1800. Object appeared to be stationary at 4,000 feet, no impact to operations. Object is estimated to be 50 feet long, boomerang shaped, and is not observed on RADAR. Object remained in vicinity for approximately 50 minutes before disappearing into the clouds. TY, PD notified.
A spokesperson for the Pentagon’s UAP office, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), confirmed to The Register that the incident was investigated by the AARO following an FAA referral and remains unidentified. The FAA ignored repeated requests for comment for this story.
The Register recently contacted Stewart’s Air Traffic Control tower to ascertain additional details about the object and incident. An ATC employee confirmed that the incident occurred—stating emphatically, “Oh yes, we remember that”—but when this writer identified themselves as a member of the press, the employee said, “I can’t talk about this,” before abruptly ending the phone call.
The FAA was unable to locate any additional records related to this incident, per a follow-up Freedom of Information Act request filed by this publication.
Because ATC tower staff contacted law enforcement regarding the event, according to the FAA report, The Register also filed requests for police records with local and state law enforcement agencies. No records were found.
Additionally, no activity related to Stewart Air National Guard base (adjacent to Stewart Airport) was occurring in the area at the time of the incident.
A Private Company’s Craft?
In February 2020, the online publication The War Zone published a piece about prosaic delta-winged airships manufactured by a private contractor, JP Aerospace. Could the mystery Hudson Valley object have been mistaken for one of this company’s crafts?
The Register contacted JP Aerospace about whether their product was being tested or was otherwise operating near Stewart in June.
“We have built several large V Airships that were sold to various customers,” wrote John Powell, President of JP Aerospace, in an email. “I have no knowledge of their operations or status.
“However, these were all very large vehicles well over 100 feet in length,” Powell said, responding to the description of the 50-foot-long object at Stewart. “We have also built many small test vehicles in the 30 to 50-foot length. We have never sold the small vehicles nor provided them to others. They have only flown on test ranges in Nevada and Texas. The New York craft was not us.” [Emphasis added].
Could one of JP Aerospace’s clients have been flying such an unusual craft so close to an airport? This remains unknown. Nonetheless, JP Aerospace airships would have been detected by radar at 4,000 feet altitude. As noted earlier, this object evaded Stewart Airport’s radar.
Notably, the Hudson Valley has a remarkable history of similarly-shaped objects in its airspace—a series of sightings possibly marking one of the most widespread UAP ‘flaps’ in American history.
Hudson Valley Residents Witnessed Numerous UAP in 1980’s
A multitude of dramatic sightings of the so-called “Westchester Boomerang” occurred throughout New York’s Hudson Valley from March 1983 into the summer of 1984. Sightings persisted to a lesser degree into the early 1990s.
According to an August 25, 1984, report by The New York Times:
Throughout northern Westchester County, Dutchess, and Putnam Counties, and western Connecticut this summer, thousands of residents have reported strange objects in the sky—each usually in a V-shape or a circle, about the size of a football field, absolutely noiseless, and outlined in brilliant lights of white, red, or green.
Some notable sightings occurred approximately five miles east of Stewart Airport in 1983 near the town of Newburgh, New York. 30-year-old engineer Bobby Boulanger was driving with his family along Interstate 83 one evening in March. The family witnessed a string of white and red lights in a boomerang shape over the highway. The extremely bright lights cast shadows on the ground. The family watched the lights for 10 minutes or so before each light went out individually and the sighting ended.
Another dramatic incident occurred in 1986 near the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge which crosses over the Hudson River. Dozens of motorists watched as an object with four rows of white, yellow, green, and blue lights “arranged in a sort of multiple triangle shape” passed silently over the bridge, lighting up the top of the structure as it continued south into Dutchess, and later, Putnam Counties.
According to the definitive book on the incidents, Night Siege: The Hudson Valley UFO Sightings, the authors conducted a study of over 7,000 reports between 1982 and 1995. The majority of reports—33.6%—involved boomerang-shaped objects. Triangle-shaped objects came in second (30%), followed by V-shaped craft (24.6%). The overwhelming majority of sightings occurred at night, but there were some documented daytime sightings too.
Sightings of similarly-shaped craft continue to be seen in the Hudson Valley. Late on a cloudless evening on July 13, 2017, three witnesses driving in Wappingers Falls, New York—approximately 15 miles northeast of Stewart Airport—reported “a boomerang or triangular shape [sic] object that was hovering, but slowly moving.” They followed it briefly in their vehicle before the object “just vanished.”
“None of us understand where it went,” one anonymous witness to the incident wrote to the National UFO Reporting Center. “I went home after and I wanted to tell someone about it but I know no one would believe me and I thought this would be my only hope of anyone acknowledging what [we all] have seen.”
Any witnesses to the June 3, 2024, Stewart Airport UAP incident are encouraged to contact The Register at DustinSlaughter@proton.me or report their sightings to the National UFO Reporting Center.