Most UFO sightings probably weren't of alien spacecraft straight out of Star Trek or Star Wars, but that wouldn't have made them any less of a potential threat.
They could have been weather balloons, high-flying wildlife, misidentified military crafts, or -- a more sinister possibility -- drones or other spy equipment sent by our nation's enemies.
None of these possibilities have yet been ruled out in the case of some strange footage that Michelle Reyes captured from a plane on March 25, footage she said she took while her aircraft descending into LaGuardia airport in New York City.
Reyes originally shared the footage the following day on Facebook, with the caption "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."
The 15-second video showed a small dark object dart past the window, barely noticeable at first glance.
Reyes' accompanying still images, however, offered a slightly better look of a dark, cylindrical object speeding past the plane.
Many folks in the comments speculated on the nature of the object, many thinking it must be extraterrestrial in origin, while others suggested it was Middle Eastern spy equipment or something similar.
Her story attracted the notice of the New York Post, which reported that Reyes emailed the Federal Aviation Association about what she saw received no reply, and that the FAA said they were no reports from pilots regarding the object.
Several experts then took it upon themselves to study the footage.
One of them, Thomas Wertman of Ohio's Mutual UFO Network, said that the object was "relatively close" to the plane and traveling at an altitude of about 2,500 feet.
However, Wertman had no concrete conclusion as to the nature of the object, saying only that he didn't think it was drone or military aircraft, since "[d]rones aren’t supposed to fly at that altitude, at least legally."
"If it were something related to defense or law enforcement, you normally wouldn’t see it so close to a major flight lane," he added.
Likewise, he didn't think it was an ordinary passenger plane, "because I don’t see features like wings or a tail."
The U.K.'s Daily Mail informed readers that Reyes' father, a former Navy man, thought it might be a drone, though he expressed some alarm about how close it seemed to be to the plane.
Another UFO watcher, Ben Hansen of Discovery's "UFO Witness," expressed the same surprise at not only how fast the object seemed to move but also its proximity to Reyes' aircraft.
Granted, two men with a vested interest in proving extraterrestrial contact on Earth might not be the most unbiased experts, but their independent analyses did bring some interesting information about the object to light.
Even if the object was relatively benign -- such as the "solar balloon" some Facebook commenters theorized it to be -- its closeness to the flight path seems to indicate a risk of striking the aircraft or getting sucked into a jet engine, which could easily cause catastrophic damage.
But it may not have been benign. According to one leading theory on UFO sightings near military bases, it may have been a surveillance drone deployed by America's adversaries. Knowing it came from China, Russia or the Middle East would not assuage any concerns raised by the sighting of the object, even if it were proven to be terrestrial in origin.
In fact, it would only exacerbate them.
