Light over Gulf Shores, AL
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
(The diagrams and pictures provided are not from the actual event. Just images to help with explaining what I saw. The numbers in the pictures explain the path it took starting with 1.) I am a 30 year old male. I am in Alabama, vacationing at Gulf Shores. I was playing volleyball on the beach with my family when I saw a ball of light move through the sky unlike any aircraft I've seen before. I was facing east around 8 p.m., and there was large storm clouds in that direction heading out to the gulf. Every five minutes or so there would be heat lightning or flashes of lighting that remained in the clouds. The lightning never made any sounds. Just before a volley started in a game, my attention was drawn towards a ball of light that came out of the cloud. It did not make a sound. It was the size, brightness, and color of a planet being observed in the night sky. White in color and bright. The light emitted was consistent, unblinking. The object started 200 yards away from me over the pink 7 or 8 story building, it was just below the clouds in height. It moved towards me to the west for about 100 yards, and was over the tan 7 to 8 story building. I pointed at it and told everyone to look. Everyone's attention was to the start of the game. The object then changed direction back to west a 100 yards over the pink building, to the point I first saw it, and then dropped in elevation to what I'm guessing was about 100 feet. It immediately increased speed and elevation back into the clouds. As it was in the clouds, the light it emitted was slightly blurred and then not visible. This all occurred in about five seconds. I saw it, paused, said "hey look at that", it manueverd away from our position, and was gone. I began to discuss what I saw with members of my family for about 10 minutes after the event. At the end of that time, a military jet flew along the beach over our heads very loudly. This was the only time I heard a military jet during the six days I've been at the beach in Gulf Shores.
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #119346). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2015-06-01 → 2015-06-18
From the same sky
Related entries
November 9, 2023 · 6:25 PM · CIRCLE
Gulf Shores, AL
While traveling South on the Foley Beach Express, we observed at first one orange circular light in the southern sky. This orange light would appear for about 10 seconds before slowly fading. A short time later we observed two orange lights in the same position. These lights appeared then faded in about 7 second intervals. After their third appearance, these lights faded and did not reappear. These lights did not seem to change position at any time. We estimate their location to be somewhere over the eastern side of Gulf Shores, Alabama.
September 12, 2023 · 8:10 PM · SPHERE
Gulf Shores, AL
At Approximately 8:10 pm, September 12, 2023, my friend and I were on the deck of our vacation beach house in Gulf Shores, Alabama, gazing at the southwest sky over the Gulf of Mexico. Suddenly an orange orb appeared in the sky about the size of a nickel held at arm’s length, so it seemed very close. The orb was very bright but not blinding with no aura or light beaming from it, much like a stoplight. It seemed to blink on like an eye opening. It did not move and was perfectly round. Almost immediately another identical orb blinked on to the left of the first, and then another to its right, all in a straight line and in perfect alignment with each other and none moving. There was no sound. Moments later they all blinked off. Approximately five to 10 minutes after the three orbs disappeared, what looked like a string of lights appeared lower in the sky and to the right of where the first three orbs were. These orbs were much smaller than the first three, all in a line and static in the sky. Like the first three, these orbs did not twinkle, although it appeared that one would go out on one end of the string and another come on at the other end. Immediately after this appearance, another identical string of orbs appeared far to the left of the first string and a bit lower in the sky but approximately the same size. The orbs in these strings were identical in shape and color to the first sighting of three. They remained static in the sky until they disappeared a few seconds after they appeared. There was no sound. The first photo is of the night sky on September 12 from my seated position on the deck. I’ve overlayed the graphic of orbs to provide an illustration of what we saw. On September 14, 2023, my friend and I were once again sitting on the deck and watching the night sky. Due south and far out over the Gulf of Mexico, much farther out than the previous sighting, we saw two orange orbs in a line similar in color and shape to the previous sighting on September 12. One of the orbs blinked out within moments, but my friend got a photo of the second orb. The second and third images are of this orb. The third photo is an enlargement of the second. [NUFORC annotation: Flares - Possible]
October 1, 2022 · 6:40 PM · OVAL
Gulf Shores, AL
The object was captured on slow motion video while filming from the shore and facing out over the ocean. No one standing on the shore noticed the object in real time. It was not until later we were watching the video of my son fishing that we noticed the object. It takes up 5 seconds of the slow motion video, which would have been just a split second in real time, but it moves across the entire sky in that short time. There were no strange sounds noticed. The object appears at the 30second mark of the video and ends at the 35 second mark. Still frame pictures are added as well with the object circled in different places. The sighting took place from the address 1993 West Beach Blvd, Gulf Shores, Alabama, 36542. We were on vacation and renting this property for the week.
September 14, 2022 · 8:00 PM · LIGHT
Gulf Shores, AL
Red lights in the sky over the ocean off of gulf shores…lights were splitting into two lights which then split into 4 and then 5. One had what looked like 6 white lights off the sides. That sequentially turned off and then on again on the other side. We spotted them 3 nights in a row, all around 8pm.. lasting approximately 20 minutes with a couple second intervals of being able to see the lights before they would disappear as quickly as they appeared.
August 10, 2022 · 7:30 PM · LIGHT
Gulf Shores, AL
A sort of large dronish thing flew over the coast. It moved parallel to the shore about 100’ up. It hesitated in a number of places. It went way high and dropped very suddenly. It went down the shore to the west until it was almost out of sight then came back. It did a little more of the moving in the same manner. It dropped behind a house and didn’t come back after that. It seems that it would have been a couple hundred yards out in the water where it came down. It was completely silent with no discernible mode of propulsion. Some one besides my brother and I must have seen it.
January 27, 2022 · 7:00 PM · SPHERE
Gulf Shores, AL
Orange/red large glowing ball at around 2500 ft. At my 12oclock...first one ...then second one at my 3 oclock...o'clock... both remained on for approximately 5 more secs..then both turn off at same time. They looked identical. From the first orb total time around 10 sec. Heard helicopter about 10 mins later...with no lights I could see. Picture submitted was just a representation of another photo I found online from same area in 2018.