Matt Stevens, Rick Rojas and Jacey Fortin

“A sort of unnatural, fluorescent shade of blue,” said Bill San Antonio, 28, who was watching Thursday night from inside a terminal at LaGuardia Airport.

“We thought it was a UFO,” said Yiota Androtsokis, a longtime Queens resident.

Androtsokis was not the only one. In the earliest moments, hundreds of Twitter users from across the city posted videos of the eerie lights, causing many on social media to fear an alien invasion.

By late Thursday, officials said the event was caused by nothing more than a transformer explosion.

“No injuries, no fire, no evidence of extraterrestrial activity,” the New York Police Department tweeted, adding later that the explosion was not suspicious. There was one Con Edison employee nearby when the fire started, and the authorities said he was unharmed.

Still, Deputy Inspector Osvaldo Nunez, the commanding officer of the 114th Precinct, conceded that the episode “was spectacular.”

“You could see it from the precinct, and the precinct is about a half-mile away,” he said. “You felt it in your chest, the explosions, and the night sky turned an electric blue.”

All the excitement caused plenty of problems. Nunez said the bright lights and loud bangs caused a surge of 911 calls, with residents reporting explosions and one person calling in a plane crash.

The power went down briefly at LaGuardia Airport, forcing a ground stop and causing delays. And the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said in a tweet that No. 7 train had been disrupted by the power failures.

Even the Rikers Island prison complex, which houses about 10,000 inmates, lost power for about 25 minutes, according to a woman who answered the phone at the North Infirmary Command.

“There’s been confusion pretty much from the start,” said San Antonio, who was waiting to board a flight to Dallas when the power went out at LaGuardia. After the power came back on, he got a text message. His flight had been canceled.

In a statement on Twitter, Con Edison said there had been “a brief electrical fire” at one of its substations in Queens, “which involved some electrical transformers and caused a transmission dip in the area.” Mayor Bill de Blasio said the blue light was caused by an electrical surge at the substation.

On Twitter, utility officials apologized to dozens of alarmed customers, saying they were “aware of this situation.” Although power failures were reported in some parts of Queens, the utility said late Thursday that “all power lines serving the area are in service and the system is stable.”

Nonetheless, residents on Thursday night were shaken. Androtsokis said she heard the “weird noise” even through closed windows; after it ceased, she said, she could hear it in her ears.

The lights were so bright, she added, that in some places an otherwise dark night was as bright as day.

“It was scary,” said Androtsokis’ neighbor, Mickey, who declined to give his last name. “It was like something from outer space, like we were invaded.”

Closer to the power plant, Peter Dipietrantonio said he and his girlfriend heard a bang and then saw a “green aura” fill his window. Moments later, he said, he saw people rushing away on the street.

“Once we saw people running, we decided to get out,” he said. His girlfriend, Dana Jefferson, stood on the street, carrying the duffel bag she had quickly packed. “She was ready to go,” he said.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/27/nyregion/blue-sky-queens-explosion.html" id="ffc1e8a0-382c-328f-a381-cdaf81927ec9">The New York Times</a>.

New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

NEW YORK — There was a boom, then a hum. The lights flickered. A giant plume of smoke filled the New York City sky and turned it blue.

The bizarre sight set off a frenzy on social media, where people reported a power failure at LaGuardia Airport. A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said a ground stop was ordered there around 9:30 p.m. but was lifted after about 45 minutes; the airport resumed operations, he said.

After a stoppage because of the power failure, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said in a tweet that the No. 7 train had resumed making all stops, but it warned of “extensive delays.”

By about 10:13 p.m., Chief Terence Monahan of the New York Police Department said on Twitter that there were no injuries as a result of the explosion.

In a statement on Twitter, Con Edison said there had been “a brief electrical fire” at one of its substations, “which involved some electrical transformers and caused a transmission dip in the area.” Mayor Bill de Blasio said the blue light was caused by an electrical surge there.

Bill San Antonio, 28, was waiting to board a flight to Dallas when the power went out at LaGuardia. A blue light filled the sky outside the terminal.

“It was a weird shade of blue — a sort of unnatural, fluorescent shade of blue,” he said. Surrounded by other passengers, he made his way through darkened hallways until he found his way outside.

“There’s been confusion pretty much from the start,” San Antonio said, adding that the power seemed to be out inside the airport for about 20 minutes. After that, he returned to the security line but got a text message saying his flight had been canceled.

Residents milling about near the substation said they heard a boom and saw shades of blue and green filling the sky.

“We thought it was a UFO,” resident Yiota Androtsokis said.

NEW YORK — A giant plume of smoke colored by bright blue light exploded into the night sky Thursday in Queens, causing people across New York City to gawk in awe before the authorities determined an electrical transformer was to blame.

New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Fire at Con Ed Substation

“Power is operational at all terminals at #LGA,” the airport tweeted around 11 p.m.

After a stoppage because of the power failure, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said in a tweet that the No. 7 train had resumed making all stops, but it warned of “extensive delays” in both directions.

The Rikers Island prison complex, which houses about 10,000 inmates, lost power for about 25 minutes, according to a woman who answered the phone at the North Infirmary Command on the island.

By about 10:13 p.m., Chief Terence Monahan of the New York Police Department said on Twitter that there were no injuries as a result of the explosion. Around the same time, the New York Fire Department said there was no fire.

In a statement on Twitter, Con Edison said there had been “a brief electrical fire” at one of its substations in the Astoria neighborhood, “which involved some electrical transformers and caused a transmission dip in the area.” Mayor Bill de Blasio said the blue light was caused by an electrical surge there.

As of about 10:50 p.m., Con Edison’s outage map showed only about 50 power outages. On Twitter, officials apologized to dozens of alarmed customers, saying they were “aware of this situation.”

“There’s been confusion pretty much from the start,” San Antonio said, adding that the power seemed to be out inside the airport for about 20 minutes. After that, he returned to the security line — but he got a text message saying his flight had been canceled.

“We thought it was a UFO,” said Yiota Androtsokis, who has lived in the area for nine years and said nothing like this had happened before.

Lights flickered on and off, she said. “It was making a weird noise,” she added, a sound she and other neighbors described as a loud, continuous hum. Androtsokis said it was so loud she heard it through closed windows; even after it ceased, she could hear it in her ears.

The lights were so bright, she said, that in some places an otherwise dark night was as bright as day.

Androtsokis was not the only New Yorker worried about an alien invasion. In the earliest moments, hundreds of Twitter users posted videos of the eerie lights, causing many on social media to posit that theory.

The authorities, though, had none of it, assuring the public that no alien landing had occurred.

Closer to the power plant, Peter Dipietrantonio said he and his girlfriend heard a bang and then saw a “green aura” fill his window. Moments later, he said, he saw people rushing away on the street. “Once we saw people running, we decided to get out,” he said. His girlfriend, Dana Jefferson, stood on the street, carrying the duffel bag she had quickly packed. “She was ready to go,” he said.

Outside the power plant, the police had cordoned off a few blocks as helicopters hovered above.

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Matt Stevens, Rick Rojas and Jacey Fortin

Articles written by the author

New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Fire at Con Ed Substation

New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Fire at Con Ed Substation