Wellington West Palm Beach UFO Sightings Were Probably Floating Lanterns Expert Says

Brian Vike's Favorite Cases.

Newspaper Article.

By Mitra Malek

Posted Jan 3, 2011 at 12:01 AM

Updated Mar 31, 2012 at 8:46 AM

Glowing orange and red lights floated across parts of Florida’s sky New Year’s weekend, including in the Wellington and West Palm Beach areas, setting off a state of wonderment among witnesses.

But those UFOs weren’t so unidentified after all.

The drifting bulbs and streaks were probably floating lanterns, said Brian Vike, founder of the paranormal blog The Vike Factor, which fielded about 250 e-mails, 30 or so from Florida, noting the strange sightings worldwide.

“They’re all lit up and glowing,” Vike said. “They’ll go up and down and sideways, so it looks pretty weird.”

A woman and her fiancé saw two “red orange” lights float over them while taking a walk in Wellington around 6:55 p.m. Jan. 1, the blog showed.

A West Palm Beach resident saw four red lights “spread equally apart coming in from the south heading north” at about 10:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve,, according to the blog.

Wellington resident Carol Coleman spotted a “reddish-orangish-yellowish” glow at perhaps 9:30 p.m. Jan. 1, but didn’t think much of it other than noting it was “strange.”

“It reminded me of the tails of the fireworks,” said Coleman, who didn’t write to The Vike Factor.

Massachusetts resident Brian Milne and his wife spotted similar floating orbs of red on New Year’s Eve in Fort Myers. The couple had a pretty good idea of what flew slowly above because they have set off paper lanterns in Cape Cod.

“If you don’t know what the thing is, you’re going to think it’s a UFO,” Milne said. “A couple of them up there gives it an eerie feel.”

The lanterns are often made of a flame-retardant paper, similar to a paper bag. In the opening, which faces the ground, a wire frame holds a candle. The flame heats the inside of the paper, making it glow like a lantern. The heat causes the lantern to rise, like a tiny hot air balloon, up to about 500 feet, Milne said.

When the flame dies and the bag cools, it floats back down.

Vike said he’s fairly certain people spotted floating lanterns over the weekend. In fact, many wrote to him later confirming it.

“There’s some good stuff out there that you can’t explain, but this is probably” the lanterns, Vike said.

The Palm Beach Post News - https://www.palmbeachpost.com/

The Newspaper Article - https://www.palmbeachpost.com/article/20110103/NEWS/812017798

Unknown Lights Seen Over Palm Beach Gardens Florida

Brian Vike's Favorite Cases.

Date:  July 1, 2011

Time:  Evening.

Hi, I was reading online about the sighting in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. Two nights in a row, we were outside on a friend's patio in Palm Beach Gardens and some something that very similarly matched this description. We had set up laser lights on my patio two nights ago. About 20 minutes after we saw what we though was a plane, was either trying to land on the tennis courts or that it was about to crash.

We quickly unplugged the lights and it stayed low for a minute, then got a littler farther away. There was a bright white light with a flashing green and a little bit of red. Another ten or fifteen minutes went by before we heard a very high pitched ringing that lasted for a few minutes.

There was nothing else in the sky at that time, nor could it have been traffic, etc. The lights were southwest of where we were located, a little north of PGA. They could have been coming from the area where Pratt Whitney is located. The second night, we first saw a light that would blink green for a couple moments followed by a bright white light that appeared to be getting closer.

The white light would then disappear, sometimes after a few seconds, but sometimes it stayed for a few minutes. Later, I saw what I thought were stars until they began to fade in and out. I began to noticed that some were brighter than others and the brightest one had an extra flash to it.

It looked like twinkle lights and then like a bunch of shooting stars, the lights appeared to spiral and then unexpectedly jump horizontally. It went on for at least half an hour. Please contact us if you need more details about this sighting. Thank you!

Thank you to the witness for the report.

If you have seen anything like this in the same area please be kind enough to contact Brian Vike at houstonbri7@gmail.com with the details of your sighting. All personal information is kept confidential.

File your UFO sighting to Brian at: houstonbri7@gmail.com

Brian Vike, Director Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research. Email: houstonbri7@gmail.com

The Vike Factor Blog.

Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research.

Two Sightings - Large Glowing Red and A Blue Object/Light Over North Palm Beach Florida

Brian Vike's Favorite Cases.

Date:  December 16, 2011

Time:  7:15 p.m.

My wife and I saw unidentified objects flying overhead on 12/16/11 above North Palm Beach, FL.

My wife saw the first object at 7:15 p.m. (I didn't see the first object). She described it as glowing red orb, about a large as a basketball would appear at 10 feet away. The object flew directly from east to west on a flight path over our house (in North Palm Beach, FL).

She saw the object approach from the east as she was sitting on our back deck. She ran to the other side of our house as it passed overhead and watched it continue on westward and disappear. She said that it did not appear to be a plane and made no sound at all. She came in the house and told me what she saw (rather excitedly).

About 5 minutes later (~ 7:20 p.m.) she yelled for me to come outside and we both saw a glowing blue orb flying directly east to west. The orb appeared to be about the size of a tennis ball at 10 feet. The object didn't deviate from a straight line path and didn't make any sound.

There were no other lights near the blue orb. There were some low hanging clouds and the blue orb was above the clouds and partially obscured at times as it travelled (Therefore it wasn't a laser light being shone from the ground). I am a licensed pilot and I served in the Air Force, so I'm thoroughly familiar with aircraft and how they appear and behave in the air.

This object did not appear to be any kind of aircraft that I am familiar with. The altitude of the blue orb is hard to estimate (because I don't know exactly how big the object actually was). The actual speed (from our point of view) is hard to estimate because I don't know the altitude. Just a ballpark guess on both would be an altitude of 1000 - 4000 feet and a speed of 150 - 400 mph.

It definitely wasn't an airplane's landing light. If you see an aircraft with it's landing light on as it is approaching you, the light will dim and disappear as it passes by (the light is facing away from you as the aircraft is flying away from you). The light from the blue orb was the same strength the entire time during it's approach to and it's departure from our point of view. Besides, I've never seen an aircraft light that was so intense blue.

The flight path that we witnessed would be approximately from (Geo coordinate positions) 26.900028, -80.112605  to  26.902477, -80.146637.

Thank you to the witness for the report.

If you have seen anything like this in the same area please be kind enough to contact Brian Vike at houstonbri7@gmail.com with the details of your sighting. All personal information is kept confidential.

File your UFO sighting to Brian at: houstonbri7@gmail.com

Brian Vike, Director Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research. Email: houstonbri7@gmail.com

The Vike Factor Blog.

Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research.

Three Glowing Orange Objects Over Palm Beach Gardens Florida

Brian Vike's Favorite Cases.

Date:  July 27, 2011

Time:  Approxamtlty  10:00 p.m.

Hello, my name is (name removed), I was at home at around 10:00pm when I got a call from my son last night who lives in Palm Beach Gardens. He was in the house with his girlfriend, his room mate was out in front of the house, he all of a sudden came running into the house and said “guys come out and look at this UFOs”.

My son called me ASAP to tell me what was going on. He couldn't believe it, there were three of them showing orange glowing colors he said. They were a little far off, but clear enough you could see they were not aircraft of any kind that we now of.

They went in different directions, up down, side to side, so they knew it was not a shooting star or meteor. They believe they saw three UFOs last night in Palm Beach Gardens near the Intra Coastal.

Just wanted to let you know you weren’t the only ones who saw them.

Thank you to the witness for the report.

If you have seen anything like this in the same area please be kind enough to contact Brian Vike at houstonbri7@gmail.com with the details of your sighting. All personal information is kept confidential.

File your UFO sighting to Brian at: houstonbri7@gmail.com

Brian Vike, Director Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research. Email: houstonbri7@gmail.com

The Vike Factor Blog.

Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research.

Reddish Orange Sphere Over Tarpon Springs Palm Harbor Florida

Brian Vike's Favorite Cases.

Date:  October 7, 2011

Time:  Approxamtlty 8:30 p.m.

Number of witnesses: 1

Number of Objects: 1

Shape of Objects: Sphere.

Full Description of Event/Sighting: I saw a reddish orange sphere with fire like activity beneath it. It was approximately 50 to 60 degrees above the horizon moving northwest to the southeast at steady WP47 moderate speed. I observed the object for approximately 1 minute.

There was no sound. It was difficult to estimate size or altitude, but as a former skydiver, an educated guess would be 5000 ft. to 10,000 ft. where it appeared to be a little larger than an aspirin.

I'm a USAF veteran B-52 crew chief and resided with-in a few miles of Edwards AFB for many years. So I'm quite familiar with most types of conventional aircraft, and what I witnessed was completely unknown to me.

Thank you to the witness for the report.

If you have seen anything like this in the same area please be kind enough to contact Brian Vike at houstonbri7@gmail.com with the details of your sighting. All personal information is kept confidential.

File your UFO sighting to Brian at: houstonbri7@gmail.com

Brian Vike, Director Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research. Email: houstonbri7@gmail.com

The Vike Factor Blog.

Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research.