CHELSEA, N.Y. (WPIX) —Several New Yorkers witnessed an unusual sight Wednesday afternoon when several shiny, circular objects were seen flying high above the streets of Manhattan.The NYPD and Federal Aviation Administration say around 1:30 p.m., they received calls from many people who saw the objects hovering over Chelsea.
Many people took to Twitter to talk about the unidentified flying object sighting, and posted videos and photos of the bizarre event.
Although officials could not confirm what the celestial objects were, skeptics believed the balloons were part of a tourism promotion event held on Broadway in Times Square for the centennial of the Madrid's Gran Via on Wednesday, which included the release of several bunches of yellow balloons into the sky.
Spanish newspaper El Mundo, explained, "Unfortunately for the advocates of 'I want to believe' what they saw on the 11.00 (New York time) were not UFOs, but dozens of yellow balloons that the City of Madrid had dropped in Times Square in a campaign to promote tourism in the Great Via, which this year celebrates one hundred years."
A Westchester elementary school class also came forward Thursday claiming the balloons were from an engagement party the children held for their language arts teacher Andrea Craparo. A parent was walking to the Milestone School in Mount Vernon when the wind took away a bunch of white balloons intended for Craparo.
But believers cite a September 13 press release for the book Challenges of Change by retired NORAD officer Stanley A. Fulham, which predicted a fleet of UFOs would descend upon Earth's major cities on Wednesday, October 13.
Fulham stated the extraterrestrials would neither land nor make any communication with Earth on Wednesday. But their presence would be "the first in a series intended to avert a planetary catastrophe resulting from increasing levels of carbon-dioxide in the earth's atmosphere dangerously approaching a 'critical mass.' [...] They are aware from eons of experience with other planets in similar conditions their sudden intervention would cause fear and panic."
He asserts their contact with Earth is part of their process of leading mankind into accepting the "alien reality and technologies for the removal of poisonous gases from the earth's atmosphere in 2015, if not sooner."
The book also states that with the help of a channeler, Fulham has been in contact with a group known as the Transcendors for more than a decade. He described them as a group of 43,000 eons-old souls, who use their experience and knowledge to provide information to "humans in search of basic realities of mankind's existence." The press release also stated:
The Transcendors reveal through the author crucial information about urgent global challenges facing mankind such as earth changes, international terrorism, worldwide financial collapse and the environmental crisis. One revelation is al Qaeda has a dirty nuclear bomb and WMD, but faces a moral quandary over "containment of collateral damages."
Utilizing the theme of the Four Horsemen as symbolic metaphor, Fulham warns mankind will survive all of these future challenges, except the CO2 pollution of our atmosphere. According to information provided to the author by the Transcendors, the build-up of CO2 pollution is rising 1% annually to a "critical mass" of 22% in which mankind could not survive "without outside intervention."
The FAA also stated Wednesday that after reviewing radar information, they only found typical helicopter traffic above the West Side but could not detect anything unusual that would prompt the avalanche of reports they received.
"We re-ran radar to see if there was anything there that we can't account for but there is nothing in the area," said FAA spokesman Jim Peters. "There was some helicopter traffic over the river at that time and we checked with LaGuardia Tower. And they said they had nothing going low at that time."
NYPD and FAA officials say if the objects were part of an planned, organized weather balloon release, it is protocol that they are notified in advance. Neither agency received alerts.
The National Weather Service also stated they were not missing any weather balloons Wednesday.
On Thursday, the FAA stated the objects remained unidentified.
"We'll let people draw their own conclusions as to what they saw in the air over New York City," said Peters.
