Appearance / Description of Object(s)

As large as two silver dollars in the sky, a neon red/orange color, it had no glaring edges, no starlike edges (this would more or less have constituted a common aircraft light coming towards me). This was seen at night.

Size of Object(s)

As large as two silver dollars

Description of Area / Surroundings

Urban to slightly rural. 1 Power plant. Major highways, Garden State Parkway. NJ Pine Barrens. It only once went anywhere near it, but I do with 60 miles of where I live have an Airforce base.

Full Description & Details

I'd like to start this description by saying that I am a helicopter pilot so I've kept this on the "Down-Low" for fear of scrutiny. I am therefore familiar with gauging aircraft in the sky in aeronautical miles. I also live in an area with heavy military air traffic (Lakehurst Naval Base/McGuire Airforce Base) and I can differentiate from commercial traffic, to military traffic and this is by far something completely "NEW" and unexplainable in my perspective due to what I saw and the nature of the activity of this 'aircraft/UFO'. I'm also the type of person that would try to either prove or dismiss a sighting I had as a natural occurence rather than jump to conclusions. Anyway, between the hours of 7:30 and 8:00 PM, on the night of March 14th, 2006, I was driving south on Rt. 35 coming through Seaside Heights heading towards the bridge when this sighting took place. I was returning from having dinner with my father where we had dinner at 'Caraba's' in Bricktown, NJ, therefore he was also witness to this as well. As I approached the overpass that connects Seaside Heights and Pelican Island/Seaside Bridge, I noticed an eccentric looking light over the Oyster Creek area. As the crow flies, this would be 40 statute miles from where I was seeing this occurence. Just to add, Oyster Creek is a town that contains a nuclear power plant. I said to my father to take a look at the light and at that moment, this light which was the size of two silver dollars combined (smaller than the moon but far bigger than any other star out that night......including Venus which is the biggest star in the sky) faded in a matter of 1-2 seconds respectively and then reappeared (or rather faded INTO sight) over the Bayville area which in statute miles, is about 10-15 miles respectively from the Oyster Creek area. At that point my father said rather attentively, "Did you just see how that light came and went?" Exactly after he said that, the light again, withing 1-2 seconds faded away and then faded again into sight withing 1 second over the South Toms River area which from Bayville (and I'm taking educated guesses as to which town this aircraft was hovering over) is about another 10-15 statute miles. Then as quick as it appeared, it disappeared and then reappeared over the Barnegat Light area, which from South Toms River, is like 40-50 miles away. At this point I realized something wasn't right about this because I tried to dismiss it as a rather mundane occurence and couldn't.....and I'll explain why. First of all, this 'thing' was hovering at a rather constant altitude around 2,000 to 2,500 feet (give or take 2-300 feet) so therefore it would probably constitute a helicopter as it didn't move up or down, forward or backward or side to side AT ALL. The problem arises (since if you recall I fly helicopters), is that that night the winds were around 18 knots and gusting up 25-30 knots. Helicopters 'CAN' suffer from a condition called 'Retreating Blade Stall" in wind conditions such as that. That condition is VERY dangerous and pretty much always a fatal condition of flight due to its nature so therefore I didn't see ANY other helicopters out that night (I'm sure there could have been) and believe me I looked to try and account for what I was seeing. Also, in those wind conditions, a helicopter would have trouble maintaining constant altitudes and attitudes due to the wind conditions. Further, by FAA regulations, an aircraft has to have it's anti-colloision system, navigational lights and 'possibly' it's landing lights on after dusk and until dawn. The light that I saw looked NOTHING like any of these lights nor like ANY color of ANY aircraft light that I've ever seen nor do aircraft system lights fade on and off the way these did AND to have them off at all would be detrimental to a pilots record were he caught and reported. Oh, and most convicingly, NO WAY IN HELL could a helicopter travel between 15-30 statute miles in 1-2 seconds respectively ESPECIALLY without seeing it move at all in the sky. NO MATTER WHAT model of helicopter. That high rate of speed in helicopters is also restricted by 'Retreating Blade Stall". My second thought was the possibility of aerial practice drop flares (military) but this was completely thrown out for three reasons. One, they would never be dropping them THAT low over populated areas, if at all. Two, once again due to wind conditions, these lights were positioned in to much of a constant manner, is these were practice flares, they would have been at different altitudes and would have been being flung ALL OVER the places due to 15-30 knot winds. Three, and still most convincingly to me is that NO aircraft could have traveled fast enough (remember in 1-2 second appearing intervals) to have spread these flares far enough away from each other as I saw them. After watching this happen (and my father is an extremely skeptical, but also sharp and aware person, about UFO's or unatural phenomenom) we both had NO explanation to what we were seeing, nor have we either EVER seen anything like this. I witnessed this from Seaside Heights until I got into Toms River.

Can sighting be explained as any conventional man-made or natural object?

No, and I elaborated on those explanations above

Witness Background

Helicopter Pilot

Views on UFOs, before and after sighting

I believe in there possibility and I have read on the subject. But as I said above, if I see something unusual, I will try to debunk it as something natural long before I would consider a UFO. That is if I cared at all to even look at it or watch it.

Other Comments

If anyone could or would somehow have info on this sighting or as to what it was, please somehow reply so I could at least have a better understanding what I saw.

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