NUFORC Sighting 48802

Occurred: 2006-01-21 00:00 Local
Reported: 2006-01-22 11:10 Pacific
Duration: 15-20 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Tampa, FL, USA

Shape: Unknown
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object, Emitted other objects, Changed Color, Aircraft nearby

Comet like object seen over South Tampa emitting red spheroids.

While traveling north bound toward Tampa, Florida (crossing the Howard Frankland Bridge) on Interstate 275 my wife and I witnessed a strange UFO. We were about little past midway across the bridge when my wife, who is very skeptical about UFO's in general commented, "What is That up there?" What she noticed was a strange twinkling light (changed from reddish to yellow and white very quickly) over what appeared to be South Tampa. The object was approximately 45 degrees above the horizon and was slightly descending in a tight corkscrew pattern.

Suddenly the light was emitting glowing red balls that were larger than the object and with a much brighter luminosity. These lights seemed to descend to different altitudes before disappearing. When I saw this I thought that they may have been doing exercises off of the back end of MacDill Airforce base and that the balls might have been flares but these balls did not remain luminous for a long period (a few seconds).

Then the object made the most stunning emission of what looked like a flood of sparks. It took on the appearance of the classic comet type of configuration and moved in lazy circles speeding up and slowing down; becoming more luminous and less luminous. I was hypnotized by the object. It was very beautiful. I asked my wife, who was driving, how would you describe that and she commented, "It looked like fireworks".

I tried to notice the turns this object was making and the sudden turns and decreases in speed were amazing. The object continued to emit this flood of sparks and move in a lazy corkscrew while speeding up and slowing down. During this observation we noticed that a bright light of white yellow color split from the head of the object and rejoined a few seconds later. The observed event lasted approx 10- 15 minutes when we exited on Westshore Blvd. The buildings obscured the view of the sky. It may be of important note that the annual Gasparilla Parade was taking place in Tampa this evening, though I am not sure the times. I am very interested to know if anyone else submitted a report.

My background-I am a 41 year old Graduate Student in History and my wife is 32 and a Graduate student in Library Science. We are both completely sober and do not drink or smoke.

NUFORC Note:

If anyone can identify the object, we would welcome additional information about this incident. We wonder whether it might have been caused by an aerobatic display, performed by an aircraft with pyrotechnic devices on its wings, but that is just a guess, one of many possibilities. PD

Posted 2006-02-14