By Roger Marsh
Examiner
Reports of UFOs filed with the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) are off to a healthy start in 2012 in this review of selected cases filed January 1 with MUFON’s international witness reporting database.
The first UFO reports covering both New Year’s Eve and the early morning hours of New Year’s Day are reviewed in: 2012: First UFO reports describe red spheres over South Carolina, Virginia. An update on monthly UFO alerts is available here: National UFO Alert: Alabama rises to highest reporting state.
A New Mexico witness traveling home from a New Year’s Eve party reports a “green-white UFO traveling north at an impossible speed” in Case 34446.
“The object appeared to be comet like, in that it had a tail,” the witness stated. “The object emitted a glow around itself that was brighter than all the objects around it. I was facing west as I witnessed the object moving north. The object traveled about a quarter of a mile north (from when I spotted it) and then it turned west, with the tail curving as well. The movements of the object were smooth and precise. The object, which was traveling incredibly fast, made no noise.
“After the object turned west I watched it as it faded from sight in the distance. The object was about 400 feet in front of me and was about 200 feet in the air. The object, in reference to street lights, was big because it was the same size as the streetlight (which I was about three car lengths away from) even though the object was about 400 feet away from the light. While I was watching the object I thought for a moment that it could be a missile of some sort, but the object was round, glowed greenish white, and made no noise.”
Witnesses in California watched three orbs cross the sky on New Year’s Eve in Case 34447. California witnesses near Clearlake driving along Route 53 report watching “two sets of three red-orange lights” in Case 34449.
And on New Year’s Day in California, a red-orange object is spotted over Napa Valley in Case 34474.
“From the north came a yellowish, red glowing light,” the witness stated. “I fly and know what an airplane looks like in the dark. I called my wife out to look as this light began to slowly, silently make a turn to the west and back north, then stop to hover about 2,000 feet high. I had good reference points by the hill tops. There were no other aircraft lights in the sky at that point. Something appeared to drip from the craft, red in color, and stayed lit halfway to ground. Second drip was less bright. Craft a few seconds later – lights went out as craft fell from sky. About 1,000 feet below marking lights of, an aircraft appeared going west. Lights of this aircraft different than others I have seen being spaced well apart. Two outer in red with four white between them. No noise.”
A Florida witness at Tampa reports “two twinkling star-like objects hovering in the sky on New Year’s Eve in Case 34450.
“I looked to the south-southwest about 170-176 degrees and saw a star-like object just barley over the treetops,” the witness stated. “First I thought I was seeing things because I just got off work and I was tired. So I rubbed my eyes a few times and it was still there. Slowly but barley hovering to left and right. Also up and down. It was twinkling white, blue and green. It moved up higher behind the tree line later on. It was there for two hours in that general vicinity. I looked towards the southwest and saw another star-like object twinkling in a amberish/red color. It was doing the same things. There were inbound aircraft in the area, but they did not move or look like this object did.”
Also on New Year’s Eve in Florida at Cocoa Beach, witnesses report a “rocket type” object coming from the ocean in Case 34472.
“Approximately four miles away in a south direction in the area of Patrick Air Force Base we observed a bright red/yellow light that appeared to look like a rocket shoot up from the area of the ocean front (Atlantic),” the reporting witness stated. “The object at first went up at a 45 degree angle heading west. At first we thought it might be a flair, but we noticed the object getting higher in altitude and gaining speed. Living in the Cocoa Beach area and near NASA we have seen all types of rockets and shuttles lunch. The object we observed made no sound, no military escort, which they normally do have when lunched from NASA. The object continued to gain altitude and headed west until it was out of sight.”
Also on New Year’s Eve in Florida, witnesses report a red-orange ball of light hovering in Case 34470.
“It seemed to be hovering in the sky to the right of Orion’s Belt in the western sky,” the witness stated. “I then located Jupiter, Mars, Sirius and Betelgeuse, the brightest objects I could think of. This object was none of them. I never took my eyes off of the object. I wanted to know what this thing was. We were traveling north at approximately 10 mph. The object seemed to be moving very slowly to the south. No noise, no aircraft lights. The object looked twice as big as Jupiter does in the sky.”
And on New Year’s Day in Florida, two crafts are reported inCase 34469.
“It was about 1:15 a.m. and we were watching them hover over our house for about 15 minutes and then they began to travel northwest into the atmosphere kinda wobbly and then solid and then took off real smooth until we could not see it,” the witness stated. “And then about 20 minutes later, it came back and followed a similar path, but then cut to the right and stayed in sight for about 10 minutes and then took off really, really, really fast and all this with no sound and the weirdest reddish orange glow.”
A California witness driving south on U.S. 101 on New Year’s Eve reports a “white, egg-shaped orb” in the sky inCase 34451.
“The orb color was a weird off white gray,” the witness stated.
A Pennsylvania witness reports a fireball or glowing orb that made no sound on New Year’s Day in Case 34452.
“It was round glowing and it was going in a straight line,” the witness stated.
Ohio witnesses report multiple fireballs coming over the “treetops in a perfect line” New Year’s Day in Case 34456.
“At first we saw two, then a third and a fourth,” the reporting witness stated. “They sped their way from the south headed northwest and we ran up a small hill for a better view. Two of us pulled out our phones trying to capture this, but nothing would show on the screens. One guy yelled for another adult to come out to watch. The fourth ball of light bobbled in a short up and down fashion.
“As they crossed our viewing area, the third ball seemed to wane in color and eventually disappeared from sight. When we thought they had all passed, maybe a minute had gone by, two more came from exactly the same direction – heading in the same direction. It was commented as odd that their flight pattern was so close, low and without a single sound.”