1969-07-04 - Jacksonville Beach, FL - Other

Very odd Flying-V object flew directly over me.

This is the second report I have submitted to your site. My first report is dated 10/24/73. But I had seen something a few years before that. This sighting occured on July 4th, but I am not completely sure of the year. I was around 15 years old, which would have been 1969.

At that time I lived in Jacksonville Beach, Fl. which is located on the Atlantic Ocean. Every year on the 4th of July my town would have a spectacular fireworks display, better than many large cities. They would shoot the fireworks out over the ocean. Huge crowds would gather every year, sometimes as many as 100,000 people.

It was near dark and I went out in my driveway to look at the sky. If it was dark enough, I was going to walk down to the beach to see the display. The sun had either gone down or was behind the distant treeline, but it was still fairly light.

As I was looking up I saw a very strange Flying-V object. It had 4 or 5 bright red flares on each side connected by what appeared to be narrow black tubes. It was flying the way you would expect a V shaped object would, with the point going first. The flares looked like the red flares you often see on the 4th of July that glow brightly and float down slowly. The little tubes were narrow and very black. It reminded me of Tinker-Toys when you connect those round wood shapes with the longer rods they provide you. This object was very low in the sky. I would estimate it was only 100 feet high at most. It flew directly over my head, heading due North. This object did not look large at all. I would estimate its wingspan at maybe 8-10 feet. Somehow it reminded me of a box-kite. It also made a "sizzling" sound, sort of like when you fry bacon. Also, faint wisps of black smoke were floating off the flares. I would estimate this object was traveling at 15-20 miles per hour. I could see it plain as day.

At first I thought it was some sort of new firework that I had never seen before. But it was strange. I could not figure out what was making it move through the sky. It was not shooting fire out the back or anything like that. And the faint smoke coming from it was not shooting backward like a form of propulsion, but just floating away from the red flare balls. I continued to watch this object, expecting it to eventually descend. But it did not. It maintained a steady altitude and speed. That was what really got to me. It just kept on going. I knew no firework could do that. I continued to watch this object until it sailed out of sight to the north. I watched it for at least 2-3 minutes and it never did come down. Finally it grew so small and disappeared from my view.

This object did not scare me like other objects I would see years later. It did not appear to be a craft that could be manned. It was just these balls and rods. It had no body to it at all. But it was under some type of control.