2010-01-24 - Tampa, FL - Circle

Multi-colored illuminated circular object hovers near and crosses over busy interstate highway.

I was traveling southbound on interstate 275 at 17:40 hours to go to a dinner party in St. Petersburg, when I saw 2-3 large and rapid flashes of light that covered the general vicinity of my location. I could not pinpoint the direction of flashes. At first I thought it may be lightening, but I had my moonroof open and I noticed that the cloud cover was broken and scattered at the time and there were no thunderstorms in the area. I thought this was odd, but I quickly disregarded it.

The traffic flow on the interstate began banking to the right and heading in a west bound direction. After about 1.5 miles of going westbound, I noticed what appeared to be a commercial jet making a landing approach from over the bay waters, with landing lights. It made its approach over the shoreline in the general area of Bayshore and Hyde Park. However, I then noticed that it seemed to be taking a long time for this jet to make its approach. I then slowed down and the lights seemed to be at a standstill and hovering just short of the opposite lanes of the interstate expressway at about 300-feet in altitude and a quarter mile downrange from me. At about this time I then realized that what appeared to be landing lights took on a rapid “twinkling” appearance as I closed distance on it. I then reduced my speed even more to get a better look and as I did, it went from a hovering standstill and then quickly “scooted” across all 8 lanes of I-275 in a matter of just a few seco! nds. As the object crossed over the interstate directly in front of me and all oncoming traffic, I then noticed that the entire middle of the object from end to end was illuminated in what seemed to be a grid of yellow, green and blue lights in a rotating pattern. At this point, I thought It might be a blimp, but as I drove past it, to my dismay, I could clearly see that the lights were rotating around the circumference of a circle. There was no noise or any other anomalies.

After it quickly “scooted” across the interstate it then stopped and hovered over an older and darker section of the city with few street lamps and when it did, the colors became very vivid and seemed to pop out visually and become brighter as they rotated rapidly around its circumference. I also noticed that rotational speed of the lights seemed to have varied becoming faster after it passed over my direction on the interstate. As the object hovered in darkness, it then became apparent to me that this thing was big. I cannot even estimate a size in feet, but visually, It was the size of a nickel held at arms length in your hand. As I was attempting to make a phone call to my spouse to tell her about what I saw (She has also seen lights of this description in the past), I looked over twice to see if it was still there and it did not move after it crossed the interstate. Based on the rotation of vivid multicolored lights around its circumference and its ability hover, then! quickly pick up speed and have no noise, I am confident that this was not a regular aircraft. I am at a loss to figure what it was and I am not sure if the flashes of light I had seen a couple of minutes earlier were linked to what I saw.


((NUFORC Note: Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD))