Circle over Garden City, SC
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
On June 3, 2015, I was on vacation with my family in Garden City, South Carolina (just south of Myrtle Beach). It was a full moon and absolutely beautiful outside, and at approximately 11:45 PM EDT, I went down to the beach to sit around for a while. I got to the beach and was standing in ankle deep water trying to take a picture of the moon over the water, when I noticed something more directly overhead and to the right, which was south of my exact location. Upon further investigation I saw a bright orange glow in the sky, and immediately thought “plane”. I looked at it for another second or two and realized it wasn’t a plane at all-it was too bright, too consistent in color, and at the distance that I could perceive it was, moving far too fast to be a plane. To serve as a point of reference, I immediately thought of planes that fly in on a regular basis. Just earlier in the evening, I was sitting on the balcony with my grandparents, watching two planes circle over the ocean, before going back inland to land at Myrtle Beach airport. They moved much slower than whatever the glowing orange thing in the sky was. I’m a Coast to Coast AM insider and overall nerd, so I immediately stopped trying to take a picture of the moon and started trying to get a picture/video of the bright orange glow in the sky. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t get my camera to focus on it and get a good look with my phone. I don’t know if that was user error or something else. Also as a point of comparison, when you see a plane, and particularly soon after takeoff, it appears to go upwards, but also horizontally-it looks like its climbing at a steady rate. While the bright orange glow was moving quickly, and upwards, after a couple seconds, it went straight up. Its horizontal motion was short lived and once it started going straight up, it was completely out of sight within seconds. I took a second to gather myself and called a friend who is a fellow nerd and MUFON member. My iPhone call record states I placed that call at 11:52 PM EDT, and I deduce the approximate time that I saw the bright orange glow was 11:50. I only got to see it for 20-30 seconds, but there’s no doubt in my mind that whatever it was isn’t from around here. More about me; I’m a church music director in a denomination of Christianity you’ve heard of before. I have a undergraduate degree in church music, and I’m currently back in school working on an accounting-add on to my degree, with intentions of becoming a CPA. As far as anyone can tell, I have a clean bill of mental health. I count myself lucky and blessed to have gotten to see something of such coolness on such a beautiful night. The only thing I hate about it is no one else got to see it with me; my girlfriend turned in early, and I’m kind of mad at her about it.
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #119327). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2015-05-31 → 2015-06-17
From the same sky
Related entries
December 16, 2022 · 7:19 AM · SPHERE
Garden City, SC
All I can say is I was taking photos of the sunrise from a condo penthouse standing on the balcony. Took three photos and with my phone and looked at them and say a round object in one photo. Wiped my phone camera lens thinking I had a spot on it and took another photo. The orb was still there but had move a short distance to the south. The time between the third photo and the fourth was two minutes. Then it was gone. The photos are numbered 1-4. None of the characteristics listed below apply.
August 6, 2022 · 5:23 AM · SPHERE
Garden City, SC
I observed several luminous orbs in nighttime sky. Several orbs blinked in and out of view, at different positions. Orangish red spots forming a "0" (which were not seen on video) also observed. They appeared to be swarming and circling, moving in formation. Several other videos with different times and dates and with same characteristics are also in my possession. Some showing lightning. Some videos sound extremely windy, as winds were strong.
August 12, 2020 · 10:30 PM · SPHERE
Garden City, SC
Subject: Unidentifiable object(s). Date: Wednesday, August 12th Approximate Time: 10:30PM Location: 1907 South Waccamaw, Garden City, South Carolina Viewed: East North East; 45° off the horizon Color: Bright Orange Shape: circular Sound: None Distance: difficult to tell, but seemed far off out over the Atlantic Ocean. Size: they seemed pretty darn big Movement: seemed to be stationary, Starting with one orange orb, then adding 3 more (same size-one at a time). It took 8 to 10 seconds between each additional orb, but again, they were all from right to left and equidistant, in a straight line. Then, similarly another 4 more orbs came in succession (same size-one at a time), but the second group came in line much quicker (2-3 seconds apart), again right to left, adding to the first four orange orbs-totaling 8 in a straight line. Duration: Once they were all in line, they all quickly disappeared at once. Note: we could not tell if it was one object or 8 separate. Summation: They were clearly not Aircraft’s as we know it. It was Clearly not a meteor. It was clearly not a lightning storm. It was clearly not fireworks. It was clearly not a light show. Thoughts: The three of us that witnessed the sighting cannot imagine that no one else in any of the houses facing the ocean or people walking on the beach or people on the the pier did not see the object(s) too; that on the contrary, with the amount of sky these bright orange orbs took lined up, someone had to see them.
August 12, 2020 · 10:30 PM · LIGHT
Garden City, SC
We know the two of us definitely saw 3-5 lights in linear pattern. Our specific account do differ slightly as I believe they went away simultaneously, while my wife believes they went out individually. Either way the linear lights were there. We've pondered mentioning, but realized there is another report of seeing what we did. For you folks there is definitely others that witnessed what you did! And we know there has to be more people, we too can't imagine others, it was simply too obvious and too early in evening for several beachfront folks not to see!
June 18, 2020 · 9:30 PM · SPHERE
Garden City, SC
The five of us were walking on the beach that night when one of my friends just exclaimed “What’s that?” And we all look to face the ocean and a few miles off the coast directly in front of us we all see a large orangish-golden orb. It stays motionless for a moment and then splits horizontally into three smaller orange orbs/balls of light. They stayed motionless once they broke from the original until they just disappeared like someone had turned off a flashlight. The way the object split into three was simply unnatural, and the way the lights moved. About 20 minutes later we saw the same three objects, but oriented differently, in a tripod like shape and faintly, miles away in another direction away from us, before disappeared a second later.
May 29, 2018 · 9:39 PM · CIRCLE
Garden City, SC
3 Orange circles glowing above ocean. At least 5 miles off shore and over 5,000 feet high (comparing to boats and comercial aircraft in area at the time). They light it up a row and seemed to be alternating positions. Not the first time I've seen these glowing lights in this exact location.