A transformer explosion at an electrical plant lit up the skies above New York City in an eerie, pulsing blue light Thursday night, 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 a sprawling Con Edison facility in Queens—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, the AP reports.
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. 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. "Something insane is happening in the sky above Manhattan right now," New York University sociologist Eric Klinenberg 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.
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