NUFORC Sighting 118857

Occurred: 2015-05-07 23:25 Local
Reported: 2015-05-08 11:18 Pacific
Duration: 15 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA

Shape: Oval
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

large oval on its side with orange bands of light.

At approximately 11:25 p.m., I observed a very large object off the coast, due east of my location. It was approximately the size of a full moon. It looked to hold a constant altitude and was slowly moving north to south. It was shaped like an oval on its side and had bright burnt orange light emanating from it.

The bands of light were roughly vertical and were moving from left to right on the object. The light seemed to bend, with the ends of each band curving towards the center. When the light bands were towards the left side of the object, the ends bent to the right. When the lights had rotated to the right side of the object, the bands bent to the left. As the light bands reached towards the center of the object they appeared vertical.

It was observed during the beginning of a lightning storm a few miles off the coast, just about where the Gulf Stream scoops and towards the coast. After maybe 15 minutes it quickly faded and the disappeared, possibly into ! the clouds. Shortly thereafter I heard choppers but saw no lights. Very strange for around here as we have a lot of air traffic and to run without lights would be extremely risky.

I tried to snap a picture but considering it was with the camera phone the quality is very poor.

NUFORC Note:

We spoke via telephone with the source of this report, and he sounded to us to be quite sober-minded. We suspect that he is a very good witness. PD

Posted 2015-05-08