Flying object seen off Florida's Southwest coast on 3/7/25

[Dave Beaty]

I was contacted by a local resident to report a UFO sighting off the coast of Pine Island in Lee County Florida on March 7th around 7:50PM Local Time EST. He said he observed a bright light in the SW sky moving northward slowly. He said the light was trailing a long tail of fire and pieces were coming off the object. The description was not descending but moving across the sky slowly. Color was white.
He asked me if the Starliner crash the day before could have been orbiting the Earth to then cause this unknown object. To date I have not found any scheduled re-entry or official bolide reports over the Gulf of "Mexico".

I did find this listing of numerous reports from west Florida at the time:

https://fireball.amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/browse_reports/?country=&start_date=2025-03-07+00:00:00&end_date=2025-03-07+23:59:59&event=&event_id=&event_year=

A few sample reports:

Thousands of fine golden sparks trailing, believe it was SpaceX debris that had orbited the earth since yesterday. Trajectory wrong for normal fireball meteor. For a moment though it was an aircraft breaking up, then realized it was at a high altitude moving at thousands of milers per hour. It burned out just over the Gulf coast south of Sarasota, coming from nearly due west and heading ESE.

I enjoy walking at this time of night with a friend and we both saw it. We watch the sky a lot noticing stars and aircraft. We thought at first an airplane than realized no as the yellow streak fragmented. We have enjoyed several sightings in the past few years on our walks in this area that have been bright meteors.

There was a long trail of fragments, so much so it seemed like it was fireworks but quickly realized it was too high up to be fireworks.

 

[Ann K]

@Dave Beaty I'm a little confused. Reports described it as moving northwards and as moving ESE. Is there any consensus?

 

[Dave Beaty]

@Dave Beaty I'm a little confused. Reports described it as moving northwards and as moving ESE. Is there any consensus?

I'm not sure. But my witness said it was maybe at 240º and 20-30º above the horizon moving at a level altitude towards the North. I'd think he would have a good idea as an observer from Pine Island FL. My question is it possible debris from Starliner actually orbited the Earth and re-entered the next day? I think that is a simple question and most likely no possible way. But he asked me. If not, it's something completely unrelated. So far I have seen no photos or videos of this. My friend did not film it. He was at an outside music festival that evening.

I'd assume Starliner was heading in a SE direction so even if parts were in orbit they would come from the NW and not the SW heading N.

 

[Dave Beaty]

Ann K said: Reports described it as moving northwards and as moving ESE. Is there any consensus?

I just started reading all the other reports. Most contradict my witness - saying the object moved from the West to the East or South East or Right to Left from Florida's west coast. Not what my witness described at all. Given the direction of the other accounts they could possibly represent Starliner parts, if in orbit. Do we know if it reached orbit before exploding?

 

[MonkeeSage]

Do we know if it reached orbit before exploding?

They lost control at 146km altitude (they were aiming for 214km). Not sure what altitude it broke up at though.

08:06

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H8puVq2oi0&t=486s

 

[deirdre]

He asked me if the Starliner crash the day before could have been orbiting the Earth to then cause this unknown object

it sounds like it was whole when it reentered our atmosphere. (vid below)

(your description sounds like a plane with a sunlit contrail..except for the pieces falling off. <unless there was some aerodynamic contrail action he is describing as "falling off" ?

did you check flight aware? @Jay Reynolds <taggin Jay cause he would know if 7:50 is too late for orange contrails.

when he says he saw things falling off does that mean there was still light in the sky, or was it dark?



Source: https://youtu.be/xl8p-9sX63E?t=434

 

[Mick West]

Starliner

Starship. The Starliner is Boeing's leaky ISS capsule

Florida on March 7th around 7:50PM Local Time EST

So March 8, 00:50 UTC, which doe match the 1425-2025 event
https://fireball.amsmeteors.org/imo_view/event/2025/1425

It's not a contrail, as all the reports list very short duration (under 10 seconds).

The fragmentation does sound like space debris, but I'd be very surprised if it were related to the Starship launch.

 

[Mendel]

I'd assume Starliner was heading in a SE direction so even if parts were in orbit they would come from the NW and not the SW heading N.

That's not how orbits work.

Unrelated diagram of a Space Shuttle mission:

Source: https://aerospaceweb.org/question/spacecraft/q0282.shtml

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

Definitions first: A fireball is a meteor that appears very bright, with an apparent magnitude of -4 or greater. As bright as , or brighter than, Venus. A bolide is a specific type of fireball that explodes in the atmosphere, often producing a bright flash and visible fragments.

I've read all the accounts on the American Meteor Society report. This seems most likely to be a bolide. It fractured into pieces, which is consistent with either.

But, re-entries tend to have a long duration because of the relatively low speed at which they enter the atmosphere. They can - slowly - travel across the entire sky. This event seems to have lasted only a few seconds. More consistent with a bolide.

Bolides can appear to travel in any compass direction.

As for the separate question of "trajectory".... This statement makes no sense: "Trajectory wrong for normal fireball meteor."

People have odd ideas about meteors; thinking that they must be falling. "Down" is the only possible direction they can be traveling. Anything that doesn't seem to be heading "down" can't be a meteor. This misconception appears in a lot of UFO witness reports spawned by meteors.

But perceived direction - up, down or lateral - depends a lot on perspective. Meteors can appear to head straight up from the horizon.

One reason: It's much more distant than the witness thinks, so the curvature of the Earth is a factor.

Another factor: Ordinary perspective. Things traveling level with the ground appear to "rise" as they head toward the witness.

(Example: The L.A. Mystery Missile, that was really just an airliner.)

The actual path of a meter can be anything from parallel to the Earth's surface to straight toward the Earth's surface. They are shooting into the Earth's atmosphere, not falling into it.

The rocket disaster was in the news. That, and the location near the launch site, seem to be the only reason why this ordinary bolide is thought by some to probably be a re-entry.

 

[flarkey]

There seems to be some corroborating reports on X. Haven't found a video yet.


Source: https://x.com/CryptoLifer33/status/1898177877855944947

 

[Ann K]

I've read all the accounts on the American Meteor Society report. This seems most likely to be a bolide. It fractured into pieces, which is consistent with either.

I witnessed the "Peekskill meteor" in 1992 (from Ohio), and there was a great similarity to descriptions of this event. A phrase from a witness in the OP said "Trajectory wrong for normal fireball meteor", and that seemed to be a questionable assessment. Thanks for your detailed explanation.

 

[JMartJr]

I just started reading all the other reports. Most contradict my witness - saying the object moved from the West to the East or South East or Right to Left from Florida's west coast. Not what my witness described at all. Given the direction of the other accounts they could possibly represent Starliner parts, if in orbit. Do we know if it reached orbit before exploding?

I wouldn't be TOO put off by that... witness testimony is often wrong, and thus often contradictory!.

 

[Eburacum]

I just started reading all the other reports. Most contradict my witness - saying the object moved from the West to the East or South East or Right to Left from Florida's west coast. Not what my witness described at all.

There is a rough correlation between the meteor accounts, and it looks very likely that there was a naturally occuring meteor in the sky at that time. However, your witness describes something going in a different direction, going SW to N. Whatever your witness saw, it was not corroborated by the meteor reports. This means it is unexplained; possibly it was an aircraft contrail after all.

Given the direction of the other accounts they could possibly represent Starliner parts, if in orbit. Do we know if it reached orbit before exploding?

Not much chance. As @Mendel says, orbits do not work like that. This event was almost certainly unconnected to Starship, and unconnected to the meteor that was coincidentally observed at the same time, unless the witness was completely mistaken about the direction.

 

[Ann K]

unless the witness was completely mistaken about the direction.

That's really easy to do. Most people don't go about with a compass at hand. If someone thinks to himself "This is Florida's west coast", that generalization fails to consider that his particular small piece of that coast might be facing in just about any direction.

 

[FatPhil]

I'm not sure. But my witness said it was maybe at 240º and 20-30º above the horizon moving at a level altitude towards the North.

To the observer at 'o', the craft at a 240o bearing would be seen as moving towards the north along both paths 'a' and 'b', yet they are very different trajectories.

 

[AmberRobot]

He asked me if the Starliner crash the day before could have been orbiting the Earth to then cause this unknown object.

starship was on a suborbital trajectory. Even if it had not exploded it would have "landed" in the Indian Ocean before even a single orbit.

One would have to look at the numbers to ascertain whether the explosion could have imparted enough energy to a piece of debris to put it into orbit but my naive expectation would be not.

 

[Dave Beaty]

I just started reading all the other reports. Most contradict my witness - saying the object moved from the West to the East or South East or Right to Left from Florida's west coast. Not what my witness described at all. Given the direction of the other accounts they could possibly represent Starliner parts, if in orbit. Do we know if it reached orbit before exploding?

Starship right. I was saying Starliner.

I spoke with the local witness today. I was misunderstanding him. He said he was facing South on Pine Island, Florida. The object appeared in the Southwest and was travelling across the sky towards the NE. Not descending. It was trailing fire, and had what appeared to be pieces coming off burning behind it. He said the object moved from his right to his left and seemed to get bigger over the time of observation. I asked the witness to look at bolide videos. Would this description match that of a bolide?

starship was on a suborbital trajectory. Even if it had not exploded it would have "landed" in the Indian Ocean before even a single orbit.

Peekskill Bolide 1992

 

[deirdre]

over the time of observation.

what was the time of observation? 10 seconds, 30 seconds, a minute?

 

[Eburacum]

It was trailing fire, and had what appeared to be pieces coming off burning behind it. He said the object moved from his right to his left and seemed to get bigger over the time of observation. I asked the witness to look at bolide videos. Would this description match that of a bolide?

Yes, it would. Some bolides break up into pieces; the only one I've ever seen did. On the other hand, re-entering orbital debris often breaks up as well, so this is not definitive enough to distinguish between a bolide and orbital debris.

Naturally-occuring bolides tend to be slightly faster than orbital debris, though, since they are effectively falling from infinity, not from orbit.

 

[AmberRobot]

Do we know if it reached orbit before exploding?

The mission profile was never intended to reach orbit.

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

Starship right. I was saying Starliner.

I spoke with the local witness today. I was misunderstanding him. He said he was facing South on Pine Island, Florida. The object appeared in the Southwest and was travelling across the sky towards the NE. Not descending. It was trailing fire, and had what appeared to be pieces coming off burning behind it. He said the object moved from his right to his left and seemed to get bigger over the time of observation. I asked the witness to look at bolide videos. Would this description match that of a bolide?



Peekskill Bolide 1992

Not a great example for the typical bolide. It was slow and big. And lasted a long time.

The Peekskill bolide entered Earth's atmosphere at an estimated speed of 14.72 km/s. The range for fireballs is reckoned to be 11 km/s to 72 km/s. So it was at the low end.

Better example. This one lasted about 4 seconds - about the same duration as the one we're talking about. (Multiple cameras, same bolide.)

There are visible pieces, but not a dramatic example. Watch for the biggest fragment just above the main one. Then there are a few little ones trailing behind near the end.