UFO over New York

UFO over New York, 24 juli 2000.

In august 2000 Scifi-channel said they received a video from Samantha S. She wrote:

SCIFI guys,
I saw your ad and realized I HAD to send this in. On July 24, I went on a helicopter ride over Manhattan with a friend of mine (NOT my current boyfriend, so please don't print my full name, thank you) and we saw a lot more than we paid for! We are still trying to figure this one out! We saw a blimp while we were up there, so when we saw this thing we thought it was another blimp, and so did the captain, but then it kind of floated really quick. Then it kind of turboed right past us making this really loud jet sound!!!! Obviously we were all kind of freaked out at the time, but in the end it felt like whoever was flying it was kind of goofing around with us. It definitely seemed more like some kind of weird airplane than a UFO. Anyway, we have mostly just been showing the tape around to our friends and it freaks everybody out! What I'm wondering is, is it worth anything to you guys? Make me an offer, this would be perfect for whatever you're doing. Are you doing some kind of show like that old show with SPOCK about bigfoot and UFOs or something?

GAOS has studied the concerned video. This page is the result.

The volume of the object.
To obtain the size of the object, GAOS has taken the World Trade Center building as comparative. The World Trade Center-building was then still 110 store high (415 m), with walls of 63 m wide. The space between the two towers was about 30-meter s. World Trade Center-gebouw.

The sidewall of the building in the video (63 m) is 110 pixels wide. The object in the video is not completely visual (the other half of the object is being covered by the building) and is than 16 pixels wide. It is possible that the UFO remains farther away as the building, i.e. you could not look on top of the UFO from within the WTC. Furthermore, just a moment before, the object floated slowly past, behind the WTC, visual between the 2 towers. The woman in the video does not seem to see this happen.

If the object is not far away from the WTC building, it is, given the width on that moment (32 pixels), about 18 meters wide. If the UFO is even further behind the building, then the width could be between the 18 and 20 meters.

Velocity.
After hovering for a moment the UFO moves fast to the right and leaves a little white cloud on the location of Taking off.

moving picture of the ufo. Loading may take a while.

The interval between the frames is 1/30 s. After studying the separate frames the UFO seems not to accelerate, it immediately goes to a constant speed.

Given a width of 18 m. and an interval of 1/30 s it comes down to a velocity of 540 m/s, which is 1944 km p/h.

After hovering for a moment on the new location, the UFO flies straight towards the camera (helicopter). This move is being done in 8 frames, and takes 0,24 seconds.

Just before taking off the UFO hovers for a moment. On that moment the object is 9 pixels wide.

During the 2e and 3e frame the UFO is badly visual. In the MPG-version of this video the object is not visual at all.

In the 4e frame the shape and position of the UFO becomes visual. On this moment it moved already 52 pixels. It is difficult to compute the velocity since the object does not move straight towards the camera, but given the distance (5,8 times the width of the object) it means a speed of at least 780 m /s. = 2800 km p/h.

In the 5e frame the size of the UFO increases from 14 pixels to 54 pixels and appears to be large. Based on previous results this means a velocity of 2083 m/s = 7498 km p/h.

The next frame shows the object right in front of the helicopter. Based on the fact that the object increased in size (from 54 to 320 pixels) it means a speed of 3200 m/s, which is equal to 11520 km p/h.

In the next frame the UFO has made a change of direction, obviously to avoid a collision with the helicopter. On this moment only a part of the object is visual. Given the restricted width widening the UFO has decreased its speed: velocity 540 m/s = 1944 km p/h.

An interesting detail of the UFO gets visual in this frame: the arrows mark it in the detailed cutout.

In the next frame there is just an edge of the UFO visual, flashes in front of the helicopter. Given the width it remains its speed of 540 m p/s.

In the next part of the video the object flies into the background, and dissappears, leaving a vapor trail. In the 10e frame, after the meeting with the helicopter, the unidentified flying object is just 7 pixels wide. The vapor trail left behind is impressive. Based on the latest size-change the object flies about 500 m in 0,3 sec. and reaches a velocity of a least 1500 m/s = 5400 km p/h.

After 13 frames the object is just 1 pixel wide, and then disappears completely. Outgoing from a (estimated) distance of 3500m and a factor 7 reduction, it means a speed of more than 7000 m/s = 7 kilometers p/s =25000 km p/h.

Things to consider:
The Concorde has an average speed of 2400 km p/h. On an altitude of 35000 m the outside skin reaches a temperature around 70 C. The object in the video reaches at ground level more than 5 times the Concorde-speed. Although one would have expected deadly turbulence and temperature, the helicopter didn't suffer any impact from it.

Summary:
There are two possibilities: it is either a video of a real UFO, or a fake.

FAKE:
It is a fake, and it is well done. Because of a lack of correct equipment, GAOS is not able to thoroughly verify the technical aspects of the video. Others said they have done so, and they found remarkable elements in the frames like partial transparency of the object and incorrect backgrounds. GAOS has not been able to find these named elements in the original video. GAOS assumes that these kinds of elements have a technical origin, created while formatting the video.

And how about this:

picture of Samantha S. in the helicopter

This is Barbara Sicuranza, an actrice living in New York. She has a resume on her website where she lists "The Blimp" as a promo she did for Sci-Fi Scannel. Barbara Sicuranza is married to Chris Stein, the guitarist of the rock group "Blondie". Chris is an avid videographer and is very interested in UFO's.

REAL:
Material which resist such G-forces is simply not known in our nomenclature. And how does this object move so fast? Which magic is capable to produce these tricks? It is believed that the knowledge and the technology which are necessary for such acheivements are already known by a select group of people. There are some efforts undertaken by some organizations to make this knowledge public (see DisclosureProject). Some scientists believe that this material has a molecular structure that defies the physical laws as known to mankind.

GAOS Brainwave:
If you see a UFO, smile. You might be on an alien candid camera.