Description: I saw something in the sky last night that scared me. After I calmed down a bit, my daughter and I searched around for similar sightings or experiences and I found your address. I hope I am not writing in vain, but to someone who collects data and may have answers or at least compassion towards people who experience something that can’t be easily explained. About 10:15 to 10:20 PM on Sat, Feb 1, 2014, I drove southbound on Center Gate Blvd. I was the only car on the road. Over the houses and trees on the street, I first spotted 4 reddish, orange lights in the sky, south- southwest of my position, The lights were in a sort of a triangle position, and seemed to drift together in formation. There was no sound, my car windows were open. I stopped my car and watched for 30 seconds or so. Then the lights moved. I realized the lights were not of one single structure. They were individual and began to separate and move on their own. A tree was in my way, so I moved the car to another location where I saw there were in fact 6 lights, not 4, and they all began to “dance.” Some lights would go out, and come on again in a different location, but a light “trail” was left behind so I could watch each light move and glow bright again. I watched this for 4 minutes at least. The pack of lights drifted northwesterly, low on the horizon, in no particular formation or pattern I could ascertain, then simply vanished, either behind trees or all together. I made 2 phone calls, asking 2 separate people if they were able to see these lights. They answered no. I was left shaking and unable to explain what I had witnessed. I watched these lights long enough to know what they were not. They were not flares, fireworks or cell towers. They did not behave like any plane or helicopter that I have ever seen. Please respond. Tell me if anyone else saw this last night or any other night. Please pass on any ideas you may have or any information at all.
Note: A check of winds aloft showed that winds were from the south in the lower part of the atmosphere. This is “suggestive” that the objects may have been drifting with the wind. This means that the objects could have been flotation devices like Chinese Lanterns.
Note to Commenters: If you are reporting a sighting, be sure to include the location (city, state, country), date and time of your sighting. Be detailed in your description. You may also use our report form to report your sighting. Comments will only be published if they are in "good taste" and not inflammatory. Also the name that you list in the comment will be posted. Use abbreviations or aliases if you don't want your name listed.
To the Sarasota Witness,
I will tell you; with all of the manmade aerial objects that can be moving through the sky, from the very ubiquitous ‘Chinese lanterns’ to a vast assortment of unmanned aerial drones, etc, it is becoming most difficult to discern just what one is actually looking at, especially at night. I had my own ‘UAV sighting experience’ a few months back, and it took me some time to finally find out what I had actually seen. Never-the-less, I am convinced that there is a type of unidentified aerial phenomenon that demonstrates itself in the form of the orange-red orbs, and sometimes discs, as you may have seen. And I have some indication that at least some arm of our military has some degree of knowledge as to what this sort of thing is, and I tend to think that this is what you probably saw, but just what they actually are, and what they are doing is anybody’s guess! Thank you for your detailed report, and do keep your eyes open!
There have been so many reports of red glowing balls of light in the past year that this poor woman now probably thinks that these could have been Chinese lanterns. Do these lanterns turn on and off and change direction in formation? Probably not. I know that I always good to give logical reason to sightings, but I rather doubt that these were lanterns in the sky!