As reported

Teardrop over Santa Rosa Beach, FL

A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.

The report, as filed

We were on Highway 98 heading west just before 331 and in the NW sky a ball of fire came straight down visually the size of a baseball the color of a campfire however my wife saw green in that color. We lost site as it passed in the tall pine trees on the NW side of 98.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #130380). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.

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Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2016-09-28 → 2016-10-15

From the same sky

Related entries

September 14, 2023 · 11:30 PM · CHEVRON

Santa Rosa Beach, FL

I was star gazing with a friend late in the evening on September 14. The weather was clear, but with some clouds and an occasional thin haze that is common in coastal Florida drifting by. Overall the viewing conditions were good, the stars were clear and there was no moon to be seen. The area I was star gazing from has a mostly unobstructed view of the sky except for some trees to the west. There was a lot of aircraft activity that night, with a military drone doing lazy circles overhead but slightly to our west (this is not uncommon in our area as we are close to several Air Force bases and the drones are often overhead at night). The drone was easily visible by it's flashing navigation lights, and the humming sound it produces. Additional military jets were flying around, often visible but more often you can just hear the sound of the afterburners in the distance. I assume they were running some exercises that evening. We also spotted at least one commercial aircraft (assumed) flying high and along the standard east-west path they fly. Around 11:30, my friend pointed to the north and asked 'what is that?'. I focused my eye towards the area he was pointing and saw what looked initially like a thin object, sort of hazy, cloud-like in the sky heading south directly towards us. It wasn't much brighter than the few clouds drifting around but the speed it was moving immediately got my attention. The 'object' flew directly over us and I will do my best to describe what I saw: A chevron (or V shaped) object, approximately 60 degree angle between the wings/arms. The wings/arms were pretty well defined, as was the overall shape but oddly the surface looked 'cloud-like' and not solid. The 'cloud-like' surface had a slight amber tone to it, and it was lighter than the night sky- and it was either glowing slightly or reflecting light from the ground. I didn't observe any distinct lights on it. There is really no way to determine size or distance above us but it was pretty large in our field of view- if you stretch your arm out and make a V with your hand, it was bigger than that from our perspective. My best guess is it was relatively close to the ground due to the speed and detail we saw. I asked my friend to contribute his recollection and he said to him; it looked almost like individual little faint lights that made up the structure- but not uniform, random. Approximately 30 seconds later, a second identical object followed the first so we got to take a second look at what we were seeing. Neither object made any noise, although for clarity there was a degree of ambient hum from the drone flying overhead so I wanted to include that detail. We discussed whether it could have been flocks of migrating birds...but quickly ruled that out- moving way to fast and the shape was very clearly defined. Military aircraft or drone? Possible. They were flying that night. However it was the 'glowing cloud' aspect along with the apparent silence of that made us question that. The chevron shape didn't have any extra body at the juncture, like a B-2 Bomber, it was just a chevron. If it was a military aircraft they also appeared to be flying a lot lower than they would normally do.

September 17, 2015 · 2:15 AM · SPHERE

Santa Rosa Beach, FL

I saw three spherical objects appearing as the size of a dime from my perspective. I used my binoculars to confirm the spheres were not an optical illusion. One north at about a 60 degree angle and two north northeast, one at about a 55 degree angle, a third below it at about a 40 degree angle. They seemed stationery (hovering?) I noticed 6 spokes. They looked like wheels with sparkling white lights on the wheels and spokes evenly spaced. The spokes seemed to protrude beyond the wheel. I think I saw flashes of blue from time to time. Two major air force bases in the community make the possibility they are drones a distinct possibility. I did not bother to look long as they were not moving. I am an 82 year old bird watcher and not prone to hysteria. I hold a masters degree in the humanities (theatre and philosophy). Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD

May 5, 2014 · 11:16 PM · FIREBALL