Lights over Lake Erie: 'Best UFO footage ever'?

An Ohio man elicits chuckles with claims that a flickering light he captured on video is an alien spaceship whose crew knows he's filming them

A glowing orb sits in the sunset sky over Lake Erie.
(Image credit: YouTube)

The video: Michael Lee Hill is notorious for shooting video of mysterious lights hovering over Lake Erie, but recently the Ohio UFO enthusiast shot what he calls his best clip ever. In it, the light in question flashes over the water, changes color, disappears, then reappears. (See the footage below.) "[The aliens] know I'm sitting there filming them," Hill says. "Every year they've come in closer and closer." Though the Cleveland Ufology Project, initiated in 1952, has determined that the glimmers Hill films are airplane lights, he disagrees, pointing out that the light in his latest clip does not move. NASA, which has a facility in Cleveland, has long declined to comment on Hill's claims.

The reaction: Maybe this really is the "best UFO footage ever," says Annalee Newitz at i09. It could be that "aliens love the Canadian border so much that they just hang out there all the time." Sadly, though, the Coast Guard checked with Canada, and it turns out "this UFO was caused by a mysterious quirk of the atmosphere" that occasionally beams lights from TV and radio towers across the water toward Ohio. Indeed, this is not a UFO, says Vince Grzegorek at Cleveland's Scene. If you disagree, "we heartily recommend you don't remove your tinfoil hat until further notice." See for yourself:

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up