DARPA Drone? UFO? Or Deep Fake? 

“I saw a UFO coming home yesterday! Can anyone help me identify what this is?! Posting the video and a still shot of the object,” Michelle Reyes wrote on Facebook last month. She was recording New York City’s skyline from a commercial plane approaching LaGuardia Airport. 

Reyes posted a video of the sighting and two screenshots of the mysterious flying cylinder that buzzed the commercial jet. 

Here’s the first screenshot of the object. 

The second. 

And the video.

A possible UFO over NYC baffles a passenger flying out of LaGuardia Airport. https://t.co/cLHdUwBslY pic.twitter.com/ITuP9ra3Kq

— New York Post (@nypost) April 25, 2024

Reyes told NewsNation, “The first thing I did was email the FAA to let them know what I saw.” 

“Maybe it was a safety hazard, but unfortunately I haven’t heard back from them, they didn’t acknowledge my email,” she said. 

Thomas Wertman, the state director of the Mutual UFO Network in Ohio, told the New York Post the video shows the plane roughly at 2,500 feet. He said the object was “relatively close” to the plane. 

He noted the object was on a major commercial flight path, which rules out it being a helicopter, military aircraft, or drone. 

“Drones aren’t supposed to fly at that altitude, at least legally,” he said, adding, “If it were something related to [military] defense or law enforcement, you normally wouldn’t see it so close to a major flight lane.”

However, there have been numerous incidents of rogue drone pilots operating in highly controlled airspace over the years. 

While some folks take the angle of a possible ‘interplanetary visit’, our thoughts on this incident in LaGuardia airspace is that it’s either a deep fake, advanced military tech (either from DARPA or foreign adversaries), or possibly a drone, being operated by bad actors or someone lacking a drone pilot’s license.