Web page includes a very old local news story on strange lights in the sky.
Note that people consistently overestimate both the altitude and distance, even when the balloons are fairly close. Hence they seem bigger than they really are. The other one was supposed to work too, but isnt. Sometimes write it out that way by mistake. There's also a guy across the river from Manhattan, who sees UFOs where the balloons sometimes burn out, but he sees many types of UFOs.