The following report involves eyewitness testimony of a passenger on an Embrajer-145, 50 seat jet, operated by US Airways Express, Chautauqua Airlines, flying from Dayton, Ohio, to New York, (LGA) on 11-23-03.
At the time of the sighting, the passenger/witness states that they were over New Jersey, in clear skies, and in a descent mode.
Witness Testimony
The witness recalls the pilot announcing that the plane was about 15 minutes to landing at 2:00 PM. The plane was early because of a strong tail wind. The witness also recalls the plane speeding up, and slowing down, which was common when entering the heavy air traffic.
During one of the slow down modes, the passenger, who was sitting on the left hand side of the plane in a window seat, saw something out of the corner of his eye.
He turned, and clearly saw a red, circular object pass to the side of the Embrajer. It moved quickly, and then ascended at a great speed, and was soon gone from sight.
What caught his attention more than anything was the shape of the object - clearly circular, and bright red in color. He tried to see where the object went, but by the time he positioned himself to take another look, the circular craft was nowhere to be seen.
He expounded on his startling sighting by stating that in all the years he had flown, he had never seen a circular shaped object in the skies before. He believes he got a very good look at the object, which moved in a strange way - it jerked as it went along, totally different than an airplane.
His very first thought was that the object might be some military experimental vehicle. He attributes this idea to living in a post 9-11 New York. He also thought that since the object was red, maybe it was a flare, but the object exhibited flight characteristics of being under its own power, and direction.
Conclusions
What did the passenger see? Could it have been just a flare? Or, maybe some type of experimental surveillance vehicle? Maybe.
Since no one else came forward as witness to the red, circular object, we have only the eyewitness testimony of one passenger, and the sighting remains a mystery.
