The Chelsea UFO theories have been deflated.
The mysterious objects that hovered over West 23rd Street on Wednesday were almost certainly errant party balloons.
And they came not from Mars, but Mount Vernon.
"It was just a freak thing. Frankly, I'm shocked by it," said Angela Freeman, head of the Milestone School in the Westchester suburb, where the cluster of balloons was inadvertently launched.
"The kids had an engagement party for a teacher, and a mother brought four dozen balloons, and she's coming through the door. It is very windy in Mount Vernon. Suddenly, 12 of the balloons let loose."
The cluster of balloons meant for language-arts teacher Andrea Craparo went skyward at around 1 p.m. The first "UFO" sighting was at about 1:30 p.m. When Freeman heard the news, she realized the "UFO" frenzy that brought parts of Chelsea to a dead halt were her balloons.
"It makes sense. The balloon just went right down the West Side," she said. The sightings prompted several calls to 911, according to the NYPD.
National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Ciemnecki said wind conditions could have easily taken the cluster of silver and white balloons on that very course over Manhattan.
Even before Freeman came forward, veteran UFO-ologists were skeptical.
"It had the flavor of a cluster of balloons, in my opinion," said Peter Davenport, director of the National UFO Reporting Center, a private research group based in Washington, DC.
By Chuck Bennett
Published October 15, 2010
| New York Post
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