Cylinder over Webster, NY

The report, as filed

It was close to midnight and it was frigid outside, clear and windy. I live on the shore of Lake Ontario and waves were forming ice walls along the shoreline. I went outside to have a smoke and had been outside facing south away from the lake looking towards the road, I turned to face the lake (north and windward) And my jaw dropped as I saw a very large craft with lights on the the side facing me, can’t really say how many because the lights would go on or off and change color. Colors were red, green, yellow, blue or white and the off and on or off color changing showed no discernible pattern as far as I could tell. There were always 4 to six lit at a time. I stood spellbound as I watched the craft slowly fly west, or hover west and then stop and move backwards approximately 1/2 mile or so, craft appeared to be about a mile offshore with an altitude of 1000 to 1500 feet. It stopped and started moving west and then I thought of my phone and capturing a video thinking this is why there aren’t a lot of videos or photos of these sightings. I grabbed my phone and headed back out while opening the camera app and ran outside looked up and it was still there as I brought the phone up and hitting record but before I could get the record started the craft rapidly moved west then flashed and shrunk to just a dot of light in the sky which I was recording but all the video showed was darkness when replayed. I had only been inside I’d say 8 to 10 seconds max.... again the thought came to me about why there aren’t more videos/photos of these events, guess I know now. To finish I’ll add there was a lack of sound and again the craft was very large, I’d say about the size of 3 aircraft carriers end to end and there were no other craft flying with it.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #144760). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.