Walden resident William Glass was surprised to see three white lights and one red light in the sky last Wednesday while driving North on Rock Cut Road in Newburgh, but was more shocked when he found out seven other people saw and heard something similar.

Glass, a scientist, was a captain squadron commander in the Air Force for years. Before that, he got a degree in chemistry. He also founded a company that developed a process similar to how Moderna and Pfizer coated the COVID-19 vaccines and brought it to Montgomery until he sold the business at 66 years of age. On top of this, Glass has traveled the world on business, lived overseas, and taught physics advanced science at a Mississippi High school.

Glass was eager to share what he saw.

“It was in a square and it was like three white lights and one red light but they weren’t flashing,” Glass said, describing the scene he saw around 6:45 p.m. “It came from the East and it passed near me on the West and I estimated about [an] 1000 foot elevation and a travel [speed] of 100 miles. It was hard to tell because I had no reference point,” Glass continued.

One of the first things he did was call operations at Stewart Airport upon the chance it could be a C-17, a military aircraft. ‘First thing [I guessed] was like a C-17, which was doing touch and goes as it turns out. I actually called operations at Stewart and described what I saw and he said ‘No, we’re doing touch and goes but that wasn’t us,’” said Glass.

Of course, the next thought for anyone would be an airplane, which Glass has experience with. He noted that there’s a difference in the number of white lights and the flashing of the red light.

“Now an airplane’s tail light is red. I used to fly and it [red tail light] flashes and it either has one or two white lights. This had three white lights and one red light not flashing, and it made loops,” said Glass.

Glass also mentioned calling the Stewart Air National Guard Base, who stated it wasn’t one of theirs.

After three loops, Glass noted that it quickly disappeared. While Glass himself didn’t hear a loud boom, others reported hearing a loud sound.“It was very bright, brighter than any star I’ve ever seen. It was very intense and made three loops, then all of a sudden as it headed west, it just shot and disappeared. The way it went, it went over those in Wallkill, and two people came back and said they heard a sonic boom and their house shook,” Glass stated.

After it happened, Glass posted it on Nextdoor.com, a website that allows locals and neighbors to post things happening in their area. He ended up receiving over 50 comments, with several people sharing that they saw/heard something as well.

Nancy Steiler, another Walden resident, was sitting on her couch when she encountered the mysterious event.

“I’m sitting on the couch to turn the news on and it was about 6:33 or 6:34 p.m. I heard a big jumbo jet coming in and I’m used to this, but the plane was really really low, so I thought it was a military size jet,” said Steiler. “About two or three minutes later, I heard it coming back, I was like ‘What the heck, how could it land and come back so fast?’ It’s never been that low, and I thought it was going to hit my house,” she added.

Moments after, Steiler heard a loud boom which Glass did not report hearing. At first she thought it was a transformer explosion, but based on the loudness of it, she then considered that it was a missile.

“About two minutes later I heard this gigantic blow up; this big, huge boom, and it wasn’t the speed of sound. I know what that sounds like,” Steiler said.

Then Steiler describes a large white flash that lit up her entire street. “The man across the street came running to his window and I seriously thought we were being bombed. I’m never melodramatic, but this is the way it was then, like, I was sitting on the couch scared to death,” Steiler mentioned.

She also reports three low planes looping around her house accompanied by lights.

While a commenter on Glass’ post named “Dan Lee” wasn’t sure it was a UFO, he shared his experience that he thought was strange. “Same evening, same time, driving West on 17K/I84 overpass, saw the “lights” and assumed it was a plane, but it was extremely low and my fear was that it was going to be a crash and burn and we were in the path,” Lee wrote.

There were more comments stating they saw and heard similar things, as well as people just interested in what happened. It’s important to note that a nearby hamlet, Pine Bush, is historically known for UFO sightings and research, also being home to the Pine Bush UFO and Paranormal Museum.

There isn’t any confirmation on what the sighting specifically was, but Glass mentioned that he got an interesting note from the people that run Nextdoor.com, who claimed he got 4,900 hits on his post. Most of the comments were local, if not all, but it carried into the lower Hudson Valley as well.

“I’m a retired scientist and a hard nosed guy,” Glass said. “I don’t like wacky stuff, but this was something pretty incredible.”