UFO Over St. George Island, Florida

Tourists on St. George Island claim to have encountered visitors from further away.

On May 10, someone posted the following account of a close encounter with something unknown in the sky over Franklin County:

“I like to get great sunset pictures, from the Florida coast, so every night at the beach house I would go up on top to the viewing area to watch the sunset, to see if it would be a memorable one or not. This particular evening, (I think it was Wednesday evening, but it might have been another night. The date and time should be part of the digital info however.)

“Anyway, as I was looking northwest to watch for the sunset, an object which appeared to be a black orb with a flaming bottom streaked over my head from out over the Gulf, headed inland. I pointed my camera at it and zoomed the lens, and snapped a picture, before the object was beyond my sight. There was no sound at all. I have no idea how high the object was but it appeared to be about airplane height.”

Based on information given on the web page (The Apalachicola Times), the visitor viewed the unknown object from the Plantation so it must have been headed to Eastpoint or further up the river. The alleged photo was not posted with the report.

The sighting was reported to MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network, an American non-profit organization that investigates reported UFO sightings.

MUFON was originally established as the Midwest UFO Network in Quincy, Illinois in May 1969 by Walter H. Andrus, Allen Utke, John Schuessler, and others. The network has more than 3,000 members worldwide, most of them based in the United States.

Florida has one of the more active MUFON branches, headed by G. Bland Pugh of Gulf Breeze. MUFON operates a worldwide network for field investigation of reported UFO sightings, holds an annual international symposium, and publishes the monthly “MUFON UFO Journal.”

Visitors to their website, www.mufon.com can purchase a UFO investigation field manual for $50, learn how to become a certified investigator, find out about regional events and meet-and-greets, or join MUFON.

MUFON maintains an online archive of reported UFO sightings and provides a portal for people to report their sightings, abductions etc.

A search of MUFON’s online records going back to 1995 reveals the latest encounter on the island is only one of four alleged UFO sightings reported in Franklin County over the last 17 years.

The first took place on January 27, 2008 when, according to the report, a group of local women and children spotted something unusual while enjoying a warm winter day. One woman was bird watching with her grandchildren between 1 and 2 p.m.

“The trees were bare of leaves and there were no birds in sight. The sky was clear, blue and sunny,” according to the report. “As witness was searching the sky, she noticed an object in the sky that looked at first like a tool or an upside-down screw. She thought to herself, ‘What the hell is that?’ and asked her niece if she saw it. She said her niece got frightened, said she didn't see anything and went in the house.”

The woman continued to watch the object which she described as silent. The object approached her, and was reportedly flying about 5 mph. “I never turned away, kept looking at it the whole time,” she said, describing it as resembling a short lighthouse, old and rusty with no visible windows or doors.

Article continues: http://www.apalachtimes.com/news/george-10277-island-encounter.html