Eyewitness 7 Testimony

Interview with Eyewitness 7 conducted by NIDS July 21, 2001
Re: Carteret, New Jersey Sighting of Orange Lights July 15, 2001

EW 7: Hello?

NIDS: Hello.

EW 7: Hi, how are you?

NIDS: Could I get your name?

EW 7: My name is EW 7. I'm ******.

NIDS: EW 7?

EW 7: Yes.

NIDS: Okay, what I'd like you to do, and I need to let you know that I'm recording...

EW 7: Okay.

NIDS: ...and what I'd like you to do is just tell me in summary form, you know, how you noticed 'em, what they did...

EW 7: Okay...

NIDS: ...you know, just go on from there, from beginning to end.

EW 7: Okay.

NIDS: Go ahead.

NIDS: Basically...we were actually...when we were coming home from a wedding at about 1:00 in the morning, as we were getting to Exit 12 on the turnpike, my mother had noticed there was some lights in the sky and she brought it to our attention and we looked, and at first I honestly thought maybe it was for like, the airplane. Some kind of a, you know, landing lights or something, because it was a cluster of lights.

There was, I don't know, maybe 20 of them. I...I...we didn't count them, but there was a whole bunch of 'em, and they were really bright, but it was like...it was not like any type of...um...feature that we've ever seen with the stars or anything like that.

And we...my mother had asked us to pull over and once we paid the toll, we pulled over into the shopping center and we actually stopped and looked at it and we had noticed within about 5 minutes, the lights individually started to slowly fall toward the ground. And as they were falling, it looked like they almost faded out of sight.

So initially we...I just thought that it was maybe falling stars, but it...it was definitely in an arrangement that I had never seen. There was a whole bunch of them, as opposed to just one, like a falling star usually is? And, you know, we...that night I said, why, you know, that's amazing. We thought it was just something that you don't see every day, until the following morning when we heard that, you know, there was these different situations with Newark airport and they believed...reported that the Air Force, as far as UFO sightings...and that's when we thought about it, and we were saying, "Wow", wonder. You know, it really made you wonder if that was something other than, like a star fixture or, you know, some kind of astrological set up, I don't know.

NIDS: Well, let me ask you this-you said they were in an arrangement?

EW 7: Mm-hmm.

NIDS: Did they seem to be connected?

EW 7: They were...I would say they were completely circular, like it was almost like a circle of stars, and then within the circle a whole bunch more. It looked like...the way I could explain it is, a circular design of small lights, but I thought at the time, stars. You know, now I'm not sure what to think, but it was definitely in a circular shape and within the circle was a bunch of lights in the middle. That was what I thought was odd, because I've seen shooting stars before, but with this, they were so bright and there were so many of them right in a cluster of each other, and it was all within a circle type of a shape. That was the...the thing that was a little strange to me.

NIDS: Did you see a solid object? I mean, did it look like there was a craft and these were lights on it?

EW 7: No. Actually we didn't...I mean, I didn't notice that at all, and at the time I was just thinking, you know, that, you know, as a star fixture, so we just saw it and said, "Wow. You know what? That's really beautiful. That's something you don't see every day." But from what I remember-what I do remember noticing was that they were in that circular...circular shape, but other than that I didn't see anything solid. It was just bright lights, which at the time, I took for it to be stars.

NIDS: Can you describe their...the...the movement?

EW 7: They just...it kind of looked like they were, um...oh God, how can I explain it? They...they weren't...uh...normally...they were...it didn't look like they were flying. They kind of stayed in the same area, but they did look like they had a little bit of motion to them, like they were just kind of moving slowly like...you know, maybe left to right just a little bit. You noticed them moving a little, and at the time, like I said, I thought maybe that's what happens with a falling star before it falls. And they were all kind of moving a little bit, but very, very slow, and very slightly. It wasn't like a...a big motion or anything like that. It was just small moving kind of to the left and right a little bit, and then eventually within the 5 minutes, you know, one by one they kind of dropped toward the ground and we saw them just...the light kind of faded out.

NIDS: How long did you watch 'em all together?

EW 7: It was only, I'd say, gosh, not more than 5 or 10 minutes at the tops, but that we saw. We caught the end of it, you know? But again, we've talked to some people who have said they...they'd seen it a lot longer than that. They were sitting and watching. But we just happened to notice it as we were pulling up to the Exit 12 on the turnpike. My mother had noticed it in the sky and that's when she said, "Hey, let's pull over and take a look at this." But...

NIDS: What color...what color were they?

EW 7: They were...I'd say like a white kind of yellowish color.

NIDS: Okay.

EW 7: Yeah. I know it sounds kind of strange, but they were definitely more on like a...a...they were very bright, but there was no distinctive color to them. I would say they were light with a little bit of a maybe yellow or blond tint to them.

NIDS: Okay. Where do you think they were?

EW 7: You know, I really don't know. Um, as we were on the turnpike, I thought that, you know, they were a little bit further away than they actually were. When we got to the parking lot and we pulled over, it looked like...God, I couldn't even guess how many feet.

NIDS: How many feet would you say they were up in the sky? [Inaudible]?

EW 7: I don't even...it was quite a ways up. I mean it definitely looked like it had to be something, you know, in...it wasn't like...it didn't look like anything that someone could've put there, let's put it that way. It looked like it had to be either stars or something far enough up that...that none of us could, you know, have put there ourselves.

NIDS: How high in the sky do you think they were? Higher or lower than a helicopter?

EW 7: A little...I'd say it was higher than a helicopter. Yes. Definitely I would say that it was higher than a helicopter.

NIDS: Okay.

EW 7: Yes.

NIDS: Were they as high as...I know there's an airport close by. So planes on approach generally are...well of course they're lower than the regular flight pattern in the sky.

EW 7: You know what? I think they were...they were lower than like a normal airplane that you would see, because, I mean unless of course an airplane was coming to land. Normally the airplanes are pretty high up. I would say it was lower than an airplane, but it was definitely...it was definitely up there.

NIDS: Okay. I'm running over my checklist. Did you notice any atmospheric traces such as smoke or...or sparks or...

EW 7: The only thing I noticed is when, like, I had said when they started to fall toward the ground, it almost look like they left a little trail of light, and then that kind of faded out as...as the light faded completely. But as they went towards the ground, it did look like there was a little trail of light behind it, and then, like I said, it faded out completely.

NIDS: Okay.

EW 7: And at the time I took it for maybe it was just a whole group of falling stars which I've never seen before, but...

NIDS: Do you think these might've been flares?

EW 7: Flares? You know, I don't...I guess anything's possible, but to be honest with you, I really didn't...I mean even now I don't know. I really don't know, but anything's possible.

NIDS: Okay. Let me...get your full name and address?

EW 7: Sure, sure. It's EW 7

NIDS: Okay...

EW 7: And then the last name is ******

NIDS: Okay. And your address?

EW 7: ******

EW 7: And that's in Carteret-C-A-R-T-E-R-E-T...

NIDS: Mm-hmm. New Jersey. And what's the zip code?

EW 7: ******

NIDS: ...and your telephone number?

EW 7: ******

NIDS: And what is your current age?

EW 7: 26.

NIDS: And your occupation?

EW 7: ******

NIDS: Alright. I understand your mother, too...well I guess she was the first to notice.

EW 7: Yes, she...actually she was, 'cause we were kind of tired. It was late. We were on our way home from the wedding. My father was driving and she happened to see it, and she said, "What is..." She brought it to my attention and she kind of, you know, talked my father into pulling over so we could take a look at it to see what it was.

NIDS: Is she available?

EW 7: Sure, sure. Let me get her, okay?

NIDS: Thank you.

EW 7: Coming, just a second [see interview with EW 8].

[End of Interview]