2013-01-30 - Hobe Sound, FL - Circle

Orange object with fiery trail flying fast, in a straight line, south, along FL coastline, over Hobe Sound, Jupiter Island area.

((NUFORC Note: Witness submits second report, reporting that the sighting had been caused by a missile launch out of Cape Canaveral. PD))



Unidentified Object Over Stuart/Hobe Sound, Florida While driving north on US Hwy 1 in Hobe Sound, Florida (just south of Stuart)on January 30th, 2013 - at approximately 8:49pm - a fast-moving, bright orange object caught my eye, to the east, over Jupiter Island. At first, I thought it was a plane, but noticed it looked too large to be airplane lights, and that it had a fiery / flaming orange trail. It was flying south, parallel to the coastline. My next thought was that it was possibly something that had been launched from Cape Canaveral, as we can occasionally see night-launches from our area. I had just driven from Jupiter/Tequesta, and had noticed a bright light (also in the east) possibly from a helicopter or airplane, about 8 miles south of where I saw the above-mentioned object. The reason I mention this, is because what initially caught my eye was the great speed of the orange flaming trail in relation to the light seen over the Jupiter/Tequesta area, less than 10 minutes prior. The sky was clear, with no clouds.

I pulled over in a church parking lot (east side of US Hwy 1) to get a better look, and immediately dialed my husband from my cell phone. (8:50pm) I told him to look to the southeast. I asked if he could see it from our home in Stuart, just a few miles north and slightly west of where I had pulled over. He could not. He is a pilot, and thought I might have been seeing a jet-engine flaring. I did not think so, due to the fact it was moving so fast, and also, so straight. (Horizontally) After about 20-30 seconds, the trail was no longer visible, but I could still see a light (just a circular light)traveling straight and to the south, but much faster than it had been moving while the trail was visible. At this point I assumed it might be a meteorite or satellite, but thought it unlikely due to it's speed and how it did not lose altitude.

The entire viewing lasted less than a minute. I watched the evening news at 11pm, thinking I would see a report of something unusual. Since I did not, I decided to research news online. Upon finding nothing, I chose to contact your agency via your telephone hotline, where I was advised to put it into writing,in my own words.