On March 25, 2024, the New York Post reported a story about airline passenger Michelle Reyes, who accidentally filmed a black cylindrical object with a possible white dome over New York City. The object passed her plane in the opposite direction. Concerned it was a safety hazard, she reported the incident to the FAA but has not received a response as of this writing, which is unsurprising.
Tom Wertman, MUFON’s Ohio State Director and a member of the MUFON Photo Analysis Team, examined the footage. Despite his expertise, he couldn’t identify the object. A bird was ruled out due to the plane’s high altitude and the object’s shape. CNN and other news outlets, including Ben Hansen, suggested the object was anomalous. MUFON agrees that it appears to be a technological object, not a bird or balloon. The object’s speed couldn’t be determined since the plane was flying at several hundred miles per hour, and the object appeared in only one or two frames.
MUFON took a different approach by looking for correlating cases and found a significant one pointing to an anomalous object. In 1979, a similar black cylinder with a milky white dome was reported in Italy. Pilot Giancarlo Cecconi, returning from a photographic survey, encountered the object over Treviso. He took over eighty photographs, although only one is publicly available. Comparing Reyes’ photo to the 1979 Cecconi case shows undeniable similarities, suggesting we are seeing the same object or a similar construct 45 years later.
On June 18, 1979, Cecconi, a marshal with the Italian Air Force, was flying a G 91/R equipped with four VINTEN cameras. He received a radio call to investigate an unidentified object detected by radar near Treviso. Upon sighting, he realized it was not a solar UFO but something different, resembling a dull black “fuel tank” with a milky white dome. Cecconi took several photographs as he maneuvered around the object, noting it remained static and unaffected by turbulence, unlike solar UFOs he had seen before.
The sighting lasted about five minutes before the object suddenly vanished from radar and visual sight. After returning to base, Cecconi had the films developed and kept a copy. Years later, when ufologists requested the case documentation, the Ministry of Defense claimed the object was identified as a cylindrical balloon made of black plastic bags, a response that baffled experts considering Cecconi’s experience and competence.
Bob Spearing, a Fordham University graduate with a B.A. in Communications specializing in Journalism and Film Production, retired after 34 years with the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. His roles included Rail Traffic Controller, Locomotive Engineer, Safety Investigator, and Public Relations Manager. A MUFON member since 2014, Bob has served as National Director for Spain and India and led the Special Assignment Team. He has contributed to projects like MARRS, the Pine Bush UFO Museum, the Observer Network, and the MUFON UFO Map App. His work has been featured in international UFO magazines, including four MUFON Journal cover stories, and he has appeared as a photo analyst on UFOs: The Lost Evidence and Ancient Aliens.