Goodyear Blimp Halts New Jersey Traffic After Drivers Mistake It for a UFO

This begs the question, though: Do the aliens have Goodyear tires?

byStef Schrader|
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Look, if there is extraterrestrial life out there, I'm certain that it would want to stop for a pork roll, egg and cheese sandwich. They're that good, New Jersey! Unfortunately, what youse guys saw wasn't a UFO. It was the Goodyear Blimp, which is technically a semi-rigid dirigible nowadays, but either way, it's definitely an aircraft from Earth. 

The beloved blimp was hovering over the New York Giants vs. Pittsburgh Steelers football game at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium Monday night, Jalopnik reports. This caused a whole lot of confusion for folks traveling nearby, and to their credit, it was definitely a flying object they weren't able to identify from that far away. 

It clogged up traffic, too. Multiple videos posted on social media show drivers slowing down to capture the "UFO," per WUSA 9

I appreciate the optimism, Jersey drivers. Who wouldn't want to see aliens at this point in 2020? Given the state of things lately, maybe it's worth the risk to ask them to take us with them. 

The videos of the Goodyear Blimp cosplaying a flying saucer went viral, with one TikTok racking up millions of views and 677,000 likes at the time of this writing. 

As Jalopnik notes, the viral videos even spread to UFO enthusiasts, who might feel a little silly now given the recognizability of the flying object in question. 

"During this pandemic, UFO sightings have been more frequent than previous years," asked Alexander Helbert on Twitter, as translated by Google. "Do they all have a relationship? Maybe they worry about what is happening to humanity?"

A few skeptics hopped online to come up with a more reasonable explanation, but some seemed to get tripped up by the bright lights on the blimp's bottom: 

Others really weren't having any other explanations: 

For better or for worse, aliens weren't onboard the blimp, either. The blimp was just catching aerial footage for the NFL game, per WUSA 9. Here's what it looks like filming onboard the blimp from a previous event: 

I guess it's all up to you, Area 51. Let's see clearer shots of those aliens. 

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