The Moriches Bay downing (Long Island, 1989)
Early on 29 September 1989, according to the Long Island UFO Network and Leonard Stringfield, a UFO was shot down over Moriches Bay on Long Island by a US 'Star Wars' weapon. An anonymous Air Force intelligence colonel claimed 18 servicemen died in the recovery, and witnesses described helicopters and a convoy heading for Brookhaven National Laboratory. UAP Gerb notes that Brookhaven did SDI lethality work with SAIC, but he found no record of the deaths.
How plausible · Low
Several anonymous sources, all through one local UFO group; the Brookhaven SDI work is real, but nothing about the event can be checked.
- ●○Access An Air Force intelligence colonel and a Brookhaven scientist would know, but both are unnamed.
- ●○No gain sought LIUFON and Stringfield passed it on without products tied to it.
- ●○Checkable details check out Brookhaven's SDI lethality work with White Sands, Los Alamos and SAIC is documented.
- ●○Fits the documented skeleton The SDI programs it names existed.
- ●○Fits secrecy practice Night recovery, convoy with police escort to a national lab.
- −Lone source, no corroboration Every source reaches us through LIUFON; none is independent or named.
Plausibility weighs how well an account fits where secrecy hides the documents by design, so missing records never count against it. Strength measures what is documented. Assessed 2026-10-23.