How curious,
I've known a different story of John and May Pang seeing a UFO over New York, I'll glue it in here.
It's from a nice site which documents all sorts of rockstar-alien encounters.
www.xdream.freeserve.co.uk/John%20Lennon/John%20Lennon.htm*Strange Days Indeed: John Lennon's 1974 Encounter
John Lennon's sighting of an unidentified aircraft in the New York sky in 1974 has been the most documented UFO sighting by a famous person ever.
In Timothy Green Beckley's excellent book 'UFOs Among The Stars,' as well as a piece about the sighting there is also a photograph of John pointing into the part of the sky where the craft was seen.
The U.S. edition of the David Bowie biography 'Stardust' reveals that Bowie, accompanied by Patti Labelle, discussed the subject of UFOs with John Lennon and May Pang. John Lennon expounded his views concerning UFOs and alien encounters in the company of his housekeeper Fred Seaman and son Julian (see the book by Fred Seaman). He also mentioned the 1974 UFO sighting to his official biographer Ray Coleman.
It happened during the time when John Lennon was living with May Pang, who not only wrote about the experience in her book, but has also been interviewed on radio about what happened.
That seeing this unusual aircraft made a big impression on John Lennon is clear from: 1) The number of people he discussed what happened with. 2) The testimony of May Pang who saw the craft too. 3) John's reference to "UFOs over New York" in his apocalyptical song "Nobody Told Me," released several years afterwards. 4) His own attempt to explain what occurred in Andy Warhol's Interview (see excerpt below).
*Interview/Interview With By/On John Lennon and/or Dr.Winston O'Boogie By John Lennon*
Q. Now that you've been living in N.Y. 3 years, do you still…
A. If you look closely at the wonderful "Walls And Bridges," out now, album package, you will notice saying, "I saw a U.F.O…" why don't you ask me about that?
Q. Oh, I hadn't noticed, did you really… where you drunk? High? having a primal?
A. No. Actually I was very straight. I was lying naked on the bed, when I had this urge…
Q. Don't we all..?
A. So I went to the window, just dreaming around in my usual poetic frame of mind, to cut a long short story, there, as I turned my head, hovering over the next building, no more than a hundred feet away was this thing… with ordinary electric light bulbs flashing on and off round the bottom, one non-blinking red light on the top… What the Nixon is that! I says to myself (for no one else was there) …is it a helicopter? No! It makes no noise…ah then, it must be a balloon! (frantically trying to rationalize it, in my all too human way) but no!!! Balloons don't look like that, nor do they fly so low, yes folks, it was flying (very slow, about 30 m.p.h.) below…. I repeat below most roof tops (i.e. higher than the 'old building' lower than the 'new'.) all the time it was there, I never took my eyes off it, but I did scream to a friend who was in another room "Come and look at this" etc.etc. My friend came running and bore witness with me. Nobody else was around. We tried to take pictures (shit on my polaroid, it was bust) with a straight camera. We gave the film to Bob Gruen to develop, he brought back a blank film…. Said it looked like it had been thru' the radar at customs…. Well, it stayed around for a bit, then sailed off…….
Q. Did you check to see…….
A. Yeh, yeh, the next day Bob (is it in focus) Gruen rang the Daily News…. Times, police to see if anyone else reported anything. Two other people and or groups of/said they too saw something….. anyway I know what I saw.
Q. Aren't you afraid people won't believe you…. crazy Lennon/Maharishi/etc….
A. That's just one of the many burdens I will have to bear on this day of waterbabies, inflation, generation crap, highly influential, but not untidy….
[Andy Warhol's Interview, vol IV no.II]