ASTORIA – A transformer explosion at the Con Edison electrical plant in Astoria, Queens, set the skies above New York City ablaze in an eerie, pulsing blue light on the night of December 27, causing scattered power outages, delaying flights, and sparking a social media storm of jokes about an alien invasion.
The blast prompted a brief fire at the facility, but no injuries, and a spectacular illumination of the New York skyline that generated a flurry of online commentary.
The explosion impacted subway service in the area and caused a brief ground stop at LaGuardia Airport, which experienced power outages.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo described a “major electrical failure” at the electrical substation along the East River, near the Rikers Island prison complex and across a small bay from LaGuardia.
Power had been largely restored to LaGuardia by 11 PM and the airport was resuming normal operations. Travelers were still asked to check with their carriers for updated flight information.
The lights caused a stir on social media as several witnesses posted photographs and videos of a bright, blue flash that filled the night’s sky. The Manhattan skyline and iconic East River bridges were suddenly silhouetted against a backdrop of pulsating light.
People flocked to social media to find out what happened and to share their views of the plumes of smoke pouring from the transformer.
“It was pitch black outside and then suddenly the whole side of the eastern sky was lighting up and changing colors,” said Madeleine Frank Reeves, who saw the lights from her Upper West Side apartment. “It lasted a couple of minutes.”
Some observers wondered whether aliens were invading and joked that the trend of gender reveal parties had finally gone too far. Television host Keith Olbermann referred to the episode as the “Blue Light Special.”
“Something insane is happening in the sky above Manhattan right now,” New York University sociologist Eric Klineberg wrote on Twitter under a video of the flashing sky.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s spokesman Eric Phillips tweeted that the lights were attributable to a “blown transformer.”
“Not aliens,” Phillips tweeted.
Read more at thenationalherald.com (Material from the Associated Press was used in this report)
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