Last updated on June 1, 2024

Delaware UFO Sightings in 2002

This page aggregates and analyzes all UFO sighting reports made in Delaware during 2002.

How many Delaware UFO sightings were there in 2002?

  • There were 9 officially reported UFO sightings in Delaware in 2002.
  • In 2002, Delaware ranked #48 on the list of states with the most UFO sightings for that year.
  • Adjusted for population size, Delaware ranks #18 in the list of states with the most reported UFO sightings in 2002, with an average of 1.15 reports per 100,000 residents.

Delaware Cities with the most UFO Sightings in 2002

Rank City Number of Reports
1 Dover, DE 2 UFO Reports
2 Frankford, DE 1 UFO Reports
3 Slaughter Beach, DE 1 UFO Reports
4 Claymont, DE 1 UFO Reports
5 Seaford, DE 1 UFO Reports

Delaware UFO Sightings Analysis

We analyzed all 9 UFO sighting reports in Delaware from 2002 to identify possible patterns and gain insight into the phenomenon:

Delaware UFO Sighting Reports in 2002

This is a sampling of 20 Delaware UFO reports from 2002, presented as they were submitted other than paragraph breaks added for easier readability where necessary.

You can click the 'Report' link to view the original report along with any photos that may have been submitted to the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC).

Seaford, DE

Full Report Text:

Strange lights in the sky we had left my inlaws and were on the way to the store. We saw a large light in the sky which seemed to follow us. It was bigger than lights on an airplane,much bigger than anything else in the sky, and seemed to change colors, from a yellowish white, to a red orange.

It was there till we got to the end of the road and then it just vanished. On our way back home it was no where in the sky. My children were with me at the time and all of us saw the light.

12/27/02 7:00 PM

UFO Shape: unknown

Lasted: 5 minutes

Report

Rehoboth Beach, DE

Full Report Text:

fACING TO THE sOUTHEAST A VERY BRIGHT OBJECT HIGH IN THE SKY HOVERING OVER PROBABLY THE OCEAN AND i WATCHED IT MOVE HIGHER IN THE SKY DURING A HALF HOUR PERIOD. i SAW ONE TWENTY YEARS AGO AT sOLOMONS iSLAND - mD AND THAT ONE WAS MUCH LOWER AND i COULD SEE MORE PLAINLY. tHE ONE i SAW THIS am HAD THE SAME SORT OF SHAPE AND THERE ARE NO STARS OUT ONLY THIS BRIGHT GLOWING OBJECT.

12/23/02 4:00 AM

UFO Shape: disk

Lasted: 30 minutes

Report

Dewey Beach, DE

Full Report Text:

Very largeTriangle shaped silent craft moving off of the ocean over our heads with lights at each corner My husband and I had left a concert which our daughter had performed at a local Restaurant for the State Music Conference in Dewey Beach Delaware. We were one block from the beach and although cold and damp and very dark we decided to walk to the beach to look at the ocean and stars before our two hour trip back to Wilmington. As we were enjoying the sounds of the waves and looking up to the stars on a very clear evening we were startled by an immense triangle shaped craft moving in our direction off of the ocean moving east to west at a moderate speed.

The flat platform type craft moved directly over our heads and we stood in complete amazement. There was absolutely no sound coming from above and a pin point light was at the tips of each corner. The size of the Dark craft blocked out the stars on a very large scale.

The craft seemed very large but as we were watching we couldn't determine how high off the ground it was. We watched the mysterious craft continue on over the small city and disapear in the distance. We discussed our experience and due to the fact that we were one hour south of Dover Air Force Base and in the middle of a war we reluctantly decided that it was some sort of very large experimental aircraft.

We researched what we saw to some extent and have never been able to get the image out of our minds. Then this evening while watching the special put forth by ABC news we realized that so many others have seen this same unexplainable craft across the country. My husband and I are family oriented people who live clean and healthy lives.

We know what we saw and would like to find out if any one else in our area saw the same that evening?? ((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that the date of the event is approximate. PD)).

09/29/02 11:30 PM

UFO Shape: triangle

Lasted: Five minutes

Report

Smyrna, DE

Full Report Text:

Triangle craft with 3 bright lights Traveling on Rt 300 toward Kenton. Noticed in distance where the electrical conduit at the end of Bryn-Zion Rd, on Underwoods Rd there was bright light. Thought that was strange I never noticed the electrical tower had lights before.

As I drove about 30 seconds, noticed lights coming closer. Thought that it was flying very low for airplane. It was traveling slower than plane, almost hovering it moved so slow for an airplane.

Only the speed of a car. It was the size of a plane with two big very bright lights in front, one in back, so gave appearance of being triangle, but even as it intersected and flew over me on route 300, I could see no details of the actual craft. Even though it was so low, that had it been flying toward me, rather than cross ways, I think the passengers could have seen right in my car.

I actually ducked in my car as it flew over, as a reflex. I had no radio on and my driver's side window was slightly down and still I heard no noise. The lights were very bright but not searching, they were straight like headlights on each end of the front of the craft.

It flew right over top of me and continued on over field in direction of Air Base. There we 2 cars behind me in the distance, maybe 2 miles. So I know they would have seen this low flying aircraft.

It would have caught their attention if for no other reason than it was flying extremely low. ((NUFORC Note: The witness holds a position of considerable responsibility, and we presume that the party is a quite credible source. PD)).

09/29/02 9:30 PM

UFO Shape: triangle

Lasted: 30 minutes

Report

Dover, DE

Full Report Text:

Triangle shaped aircraft hovering low in a field off Route 1 South It was Friday night and I was heading south on Route 1 towards the Delaware beaches for Labor Day weekend. I was on my cell phone with my girlfriend when I saw something resembling stadium lights in a field where no such thing belonged. I pulled over about 1000 feet south of it.

It was a triangle shape, and had numerous white lights. It was hovering approx. 200-300 feet off the ground, and didn't make a sound.

I was about 6 or 7 miles from the Dover Air Force base, but no craft I know of could hover still like this. After about two minutes it very slowly made its way across the road, heading NE. I quickly hopped in my car and made a U-turn, but it disappeared over some trees.

Many other people were on the road and I'm sure someone else saw it. I didn't report it to the local police, because I didn't think anyone would believe me. I arrived at my house an hour later, where my stepbrother and his girlfriend were waiting.

He had been 15-25 min. ahead of me and he said they saw the same thing. At first I thought he was taunting me, but I soon realized he was telling the truth.

While searching this site for related sightings I came across a very similar report from two years ago in the same area (http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/S14819.

html). Word for word its exactly what I experienced. I'm wondering if this has been going on for awhile in this area.

Maybe its some experimental aircraft, but why would you hover by a main road on Labor Day weekend if you wanted to keep it a secret?.

08/30/02 9:05 PM

UFO Shape: triangle

Lasted: 6 minutes

Report

Dover, DE

Full Report Text:

triangle with white lights Me and my girlfriend were on our way to the Deleware beach when we saw a triangle with white lights on it. i saw it through trees so i assumed that it was a plane or even a kin dof light post but somethign wasnt right about it. later on i found out my step brother saw the same thing.

and there is also a report of a similiar sighting apx 2 years ago.

08/30/02 9:45 AM

UFO Shape: triangle

Lasted:

Report

Slaughter Beach, DE

Full Report Text:

Two bright lights traveling @ high speeds were sighted over the Delaware Bay. These were seen by 3 other people as well as myself. I have seen plenty of airline traffic over the past 25 years and can definitely tell you that this is unlike anything I've ever witnessed.

At first it looked like a shooting star. (that's how fast they were moving) Then to our surprise these bright lights zipped upward in a diagonal motion and then back down towards the DE. Bay again.

These lights were sighted off and on over the next 1/2 hour. ((NUFORC Note: Witness elects to remain partially anonymous. PD)).

06/01/02 12:30 PM

UFO Shape: light

Lasted: 1/2 hour

Report

Frankford, DE

Full Report Text:

bright white flying object in our backyard. Our 15 year old daughter woke us up crying that a bright light lit up her bedroom. We went into her room, I sat on her bed & watched for about 10 minutes.

At the back of our property is woods that are not very thick, I saw a very bright white light. It looked to be about 4 inches around and was flashing. It went to the right & up past our neighbors house into the sky.

We went outside and sat on the picnic table. The light appeared again flashing and moving to the right again. It always appeared to the left of us and moved to the right.

It seemed to get smaller and not as bright after we went outside. Sometimes it went into the air, other times just past the trees out of sight. If anyone knows what this may be PLEASE let me know.

On Sunday night my daughter saw this again, but did not wake us up, this was around 10:00p.m. Our neighbors have seen this also, but have not tried to find out what it is.

If this is an animal I would like very much to know what it is. Our elementary school is on the other side of the woods.

06/01/02 2:45 AM

UFO Shape: light

Lasted: continues now

Report

Claymont, DE

Full Report Text:

We were leaving a friends house to go home. When we went out the door my son said Mom there's the big dipper as I looked up a group of 25 circular lit objects appeared where the big dipper was. The group stopped and hovered together for a minute.

While this was going on a helicopter came from the east and hovered there. We assumed they saw the objects as we had or that the helicopter had been tracking them. The objects began to move as a group and headed east.

As they did this the helicopter turned and watched them go. Then another group of about 25 appeared and appeared to stop at about the same place as we watched a third group came along. When they reached the stopped group they all traveled the same path the first group did.

After that we did not see any more.

01/24/02 8:30 PM

UFO Shape: circle

Lasted: 5 minutes

Report

Delaware UFO Sightings From 2002 By Shape

This is a standardized set of shapes a UFO report can be filed under.

Shape / Appearance Sightings % Of Total
Triangle 4 reported sightings 44.44% of all reports
Light 2 reported sightings 22.22% of all reports
Circle 1 reported sightings 11.11% of all reports
Unknown 1 reported sightings 11.11% of all reports
Disk 1 reported sightings 11.11% of all reports

Delaware UFO Sightings From 2002 By Month

This data point is an aggregation of all UFO reports by the month the sighting occured in.

Month Sightings % Of Total
August 2 reported sightings 22.22% of all reports
September 2 reported sightings 22.22% of all reports
June 2 reported sightings 22.22% of all reports
December 2 reported sightings 22.22% of all reports
January 1 reported sightings 11.11% of all reports

Delaware UFO Sightings From 2002 By Weekday

This data point is an aggregation of all UFO reports by the day of the week the sighting occured on.

Weekday Sightings % Of Total
Friday 3 reported sightings 33.33% of all reports
Saturday 2 reported sightings 22.22% of all reports
Sunday 2 reported sightings 22.22% of all reports
Monday 1 reported sightings 11.11% of all reports
Thursday 1 reported sightings 11.11% of all reports

Delaware UFO Sightings From 2002 By Date (Top 5)

This data point is an aggregation of all UFO reports by the date the sighting occured on, limited to the top 5 dates with the most sightings.

Date Sightings % Of Total
08/30/02 2 reported sightings 22.22% of all reports
06/01/02 2 reported sightings 22.22% of all reports
09/29/02 2 reported sightings 22.22% of all reports
01/24/02 1 reported sightings 11.11% of all reports
12/27/02 1 reported sightings 11.11% of all reports

Delaware UFO Sightings From 2002 By Time

This data point is an aggregation of all UFO reports by the time of day the sighting occured during. We took logical 4 hour windows in order to split the day into early morning, morning, afternoon, evening, night, and late night buckets for this analysis.

Time Of Day Hours Sightings % Of Total
Night 20:00 - 23:59 4 reported sightings 44.44% of all reports
Morning 08:00 - 11:59 1 reported sightings 11.11% of all reports
Evening 16:00 - 19:59 1 reported sightings 11.11% of all reports
Early morning 04:00 - 07:59 1 reported sightings 11.11% of all reports
Late night 00:00 - 03:59 1 reported sightings 11.11% of all reports
Afternoon 12:00 - 15:59 1 reported sightings 11.11% of all reports

All Delaware Cities with reported UFO sightings in 2002

These are running counts of how many UFO sighting reports were filed per city in Delaware, in 2002

City Number of Reports View Reports
Dover 2 UFO Reports Dover UFO Sightings in 2002
Frankford 1 UFO Reports Frankford UFO Sightings in 2002
Slaughter Beach 1 UFO Reports Slaughter Beach UFO Sightings in 2002
Claymont 1 UFO Reports Claymont UFO Sightings in 2002
Seaford 1 UFO Reports Seaford UFO Sightings in 2002
Smyrna 1 UFO Reports Smyrna UFO Sightings in 2002
Rehoboth Beach 1 UFO Reports Rehoboth Beach UFO Sightings in 2002
Dewey Beach 1 UFO Reports Dewey Beach UFO Sightings in 2002

Other Years with Reported UFO Sightings in Delaware

These are running counts of how many UFO sighting reports are filed per year in Delaware.

Year Number of Reports View Reports
2024 1 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2024
2023 14 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2023
2022 23 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2022
2021 9 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2021
2020 27 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2020
2019 16 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2019
2018 8 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2018
2017 22 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2017
2016 20 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2016
2015 31 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2015
2014 37 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2014
2013 12 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2013
2012 32 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2012
2011 15 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2011
2010 14 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2010
2009 9 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2009
2008 12 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2008
2007 15 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2007
2006 8 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2006
2005 11 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2005
2004 8 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2004
2003 5 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2003
2002 9 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2002
2001 4 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2001
2000 6 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 2000
1999 12 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1999
1998 2 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1998
1997 1 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1997
1995 2 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1995
1994 1 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1994
1993 2 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1993
1991 1 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1991
1990 4 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1990
1989 1 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1989
1988 1 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1988
1985 1 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1985
1984 2 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1984
1982 1 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1982
1981 1 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1981
1980 1 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1980
1976 1 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1976
1974 1 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1974
1972 3 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1972
1970 1 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1970
1969 1 UFO Reports Delaware UFO Sightings in 1969