Holidays typically put more people outdoors and that translates to increased UFO sightings. New Year’s Eve 2011 was no exception and MUFON has received 52 cases to date.
Witnesses reported triangles, star-like objects, discs, fireballs, spheres and oval objects.
Looking only at the resolved cases, I offer up some selected witness testimony and field investigator notes this month from reports with a final determination of unknown.

Disc; Sacramento County, CA. CE1, Category 2. Case 34447.
“On the way to a New Years Eve party, a UFO descended to get closer to our car on E. Commerce Way approaching Del Paso Road,” the witness stated. “Was about to pull over, but parties in the car declined that idea. I was excited to see the UFO and disappointed we couldn’t pull over. When we drove away I couldn’t see it anymore.”

Field Investigator: A black flying object “shaped like the Jetson’s ship” approached the car, which was moving at about 30 mph, almost directly down from an altitude of 40-50 feet when first noticed, to an altitude of 15-20 feet at its closest approach. The object’s flat, circular base was about 6 feet in diameter, and the egg-shaped passenger area was about 4-5 feet tall. The object was black, with three green lights arranged in an equilateral triangle on the bottom surface of the object. The egg-shaped “passenger area” was also black. No occupants could be seen.

Triangle; Sonoma County, CA. CE1, Category 1. Case 35047.
“I looked up and was immediately intrigued by a larger triangle formation approximately 300 feet above ground,” the witness stated. “The lights (three of them) were bluish-white and had a strange glow to them. I knew immediately they were not stars and they were definitely not an airplane. There was no sound coming from the object at all. After staring in awe for approximately two minutes, one-by-one the lights disappeared.”

Fireball; 8 p.m., Brevard County, FL. AN1, Category 1. Case 34472.
“Myself (Ex law enforcement, military officer and current firefighter) and two other witnesses were sitting on the 8th floor balcony facing southeast of the Hampton Inn in Cocoa Beach. We were watching people shooting of fireworks and having fun before the New Year. Approximately 4 miles away in a south direction in the area of Patrick Air Force Base we observed a bright red/yellow light that appeared to look like a rocket shoot up from the area of the Ocean front (Atlantic). The object at first went up at a 45 degree angle heading west. At first we thought it might be a flair, but we noticed the object getting higher in altitude and gaining speed.”

Fireball; Lee County, FL. AN1, Category 1. Case 34486.
“I was outside my house watching the sky as I am an avid sky watcher,” the witness stated. “I viewed a bright orange light, approximately 2,500 feet above the ground moving in a straight line across the sky from the north toward me (south). It appeared to be moving slower than an airplane. Then seemed to appear to gain altitude and become smaller as it got closer to my house. There was no noise. I called my roommates out to view it. They also saw it. It continued to move southward, decreasing in size and then it disappeared.”

Field Investigator: Conclusion: Unknown. After researching the possibilities, I was not able to identify this as a manmade object or natural or meteorological phenomenon.

Fireball; 8:45 p.m., Bevard County, FL. AN1, Category 1. Case 34821.
“I was enjoying a backyard campfire with friends,” the witness stated. “The sky was very clear and we are in the flight pattern for a flight school in the area, so there are always small planes flying. On this particular night I had not seen any planes, which I assumed was because of the holiday. I was sitting facing south, when in the corner of my eye I saw movement in the sky. I turned to look and there was a bright orange fire ball moving steadily and silently across the sky in an arch. It had no trail, no sound, no edges, and no changes, but it was glowing. I watched it until it went out of sight into the tree line. I didn’t say anything to the friends I was with. I thought it was a Chinese/Japanese lantern made somewhat like a hot air balloon, as I have seen on TV. I continued on with my evening and about 45 minutes later it was back, going in the same path the opposite direction as before. This time I said something to the group, and we all agreed it look like a lantern. I am a firefighter who lives by the Kennedy Space Center and have never seen anything like this before.”

Field Investigator: Numerous reports of orange ball-shaped objects are recorded in the CMS and in NUFORC files for this date in Florida. Witness is clear, concise, and precise in her statements. I believe her to be sincere and truthful in her statements. Conclusion: Neither natural or manmade object.

Sphere; Baltimore County, MD. AN1, Category 1. Case 34478.
“When I turned to look, the three very bright yellow-orange objects began to move in sync traveling in a north to south direction,” the witness stated. “I quickly grabbed my HD camcorder and recorded this amazing event. After the three objects moved out of sight I turned off my camcorder. About three minutes later, another of the same objects came from the north, traveled in the same exact path and vanished. This happened two more times which I also caught on camera. We live in the Parkville, MD, area.”

Field Investigator: It may have been Chinese lanterns, but it seems odd that they split apart if you watch the video.

Fireball; 10:25 p.m., Monmouth County, NJ. AN2, Category 1. Case 34483.
“I noticed a red glowing light in the sky,” the witness stated. “It seemed very unusual because it was floating way too low to be a plane and was also much lower than I see helicopters typically fly in my area. I gave the object the benefit of the doubt thinking it may just be a helicopter coming at us from head-on. Yet as I continued to watch the object and as it got closer to us is when it became definitive that this object was flying way too low to be a helicopter. In addition to the low altitude this object was flying at, there were no FAA lights on the object and this object made absolutely no noise as it slowly made its way past us. It was just a glowing red orb. The object’s distance from us was about a block over and about 100 yards or so above the tree tops. The object flew in a north to south direction.”

Field Investigator: After talking to the witness and viewing the footage, I feel that there is enough evidence to classify this as unknown.

Oval; Charleston County, SC. AN1, Category 1. Case 34445.
“Observed two constant glowing, red spheres traveling in a west to east direction,” the witness stated. “Made no sound, had no flashing lights, had no green or white lights, just a steady red light. Objects were observed for about a minute until they went out of sight. Knew it was not a helicopter and never seen any type of aircraft like this.”

Field Investigator: The flight path became curved as if the lights were heading out over the ocean. The red from the light reflected on to what appeared to be two crafts, making each of the crafts to appear red. The witness stated there was not any sound associated with the objects.

Sphere; 11:30-11:34 p.m., Houston, Harris County, TX. AN1, Category 1. Case 34504.
“We were on the balcony patio of my apartment with a great view of the sky looking to the west from the southeast side of Houston in La Porte,” the witness stated. “It had 6-7 bright lights in the shape of a circle spinning around in all directions, not just from left to right. It also had a spotlight that seemed to extend about 20 feet out from it that would come on at random times. It was going all the way up to the fog and flying fast across the southeast area. The lights were changing from red, blue, green, gold and white.”

Field Investigator: The witness described the object as a circle of lights with different colors around it. He stated that the object would go around like a Ferris wheel, back and forth and moved very fast around the sky.