FLORIDA'S NEW YEAR'S EVE UFO MAKES NBC NEWS

Heard and seen on the 5 pm [California time] December 31 news on NBC-TV: A fuzzy orange object in the afternoon sky over southern Florida was captured briefly on home video and remains unexplained following calls by UFO investigators to local military and civilian aviation authorities. The video showed the object changing from a fairly distinct round shape to a very indistinct elongated shape, then back to round over a period of a few seconds. The NBC report ran as follows:

ANNOUNCER: ...In south Florida, thousands of cold-sober observers say they have seen a UFO.

RICK GROOTVELD [Amateur photographer]: Originally it was one bright orange glowing object, or whatever, in the sky, that divided. It stretched out or elongated vertically, and then divided in sort of a tear-drop fashion on the bottom...

ANNOUNCER: A friend called Rick about the strange light in the sky, and he grabbed his video camera and started shooting.

RICK: It was exciting. It was interesting. It was different. It was not mundane, and it was not consistent with helicopters and airplanes...

ANNOUNCER: Most sightings turn out to be something like a plane landing from an unusual direction, or a particularly bright star. Venus is often reported as a UFO. Here in the Southland [southern California] last weekend, a lot of people mistook the lights inside a blimp for a UFO. But the south Florida phenomenon was none of those.

MARY MARGARET ZIMMER [MUFON]: We did call the Patrick Air Force Base and determined that there was no space debris or spacecraft that they had sent up. We're still waiting for the police report.

ANNOUNCER: Air traffic controllers have ruled out planes and helicopters. Astronomers say it wasn't a satellite or star or planet. So what does that leave? Well, that may be the last great unanswered question of 1996.

Original file name: CNI - Florida UFO News

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