Part of a hot air balloon? Kite? UFO? St. George resident spots something odd in the sky

ST. GEORGE — Strange lights of unknown origin were seen Monday in the early morning sky over part of St. George.

St. George resident Erik Sorenson contacted St. George News and shared a video that depicted a string of lights hovering in the sky. In the video, the lights appear to be stationary and form a shape reminiscent of a pin.

The sight lasted for about three minutes with Sorenson recording part of it with his phone before it disappeared.

“It was super odd,” Sorenson said in an email. “It was about 300-500 feet above ground, you can’t see it from the video but it had a greenish blue dot at the bottom with lines coming out of it and dots. I’m not a UFO believer but it was one crazy man made show, kite or whatever.”

Sorenson also posted the video and photos to his Facebook page asking if anyone else had seen the strange lights.

One commenter on Sorenson’s Facebook page suggested the string of lights could be on a line attached to a hot air balloon.

A UFO? A hot air balloon? Flying monkeys? The origin of the lights remains a mystery for the time being.

A call to Nellis Air Force Base to check on whether it may have had aircraft in the area was not returned by Monday evening.

A strange light over the skies of Southern Utah turned out to be the result of a naval missile test fired off the coast of California. The light was seen across southern California, northern Arizona and Southern Utah. Photo taken in Kanab, Utah, Nov. 7, 2015 | File photo courtesy of Jill Williams, St. George News

It’s not the first time Southern Utahns have seen something odd in the sky.

In July 2017, many witnessed mysterious lights streak across the sky that turned out to be piece of a rocket shot into space by the government of China that was falling back to earth and breaking up in the atmosphere.

Read more: Skywatchers ask ‘What is that?’ Meteor, rocket or what?

Another strange light appeared in the early evening of Nov. 7, 2015, that turned out to be part of a scheduled missile test out of California that was conducted by the Navy Strategic Systems Program.

Read more: Mysterious light in the sky explained

A caller to the St. George Communications Center mistook it for a possible plane crash somewhere on state Route 59.

A similar incident occurred in September 2012 when another test involved a missile launch from Fort Wingate 
near Gallup, New Mexico.

Read more: No UFO: Missile test contrail visible over Southern Utah

Bright lights in the sky near St. George area, Utah, July 27, 2016 | File photo courtesy of Kayla Smith, St. George News

More recently, according to the National UFO Reporting Center, on May 25, someone in the St. George area reported seeing “100 bright white lights in the sky” that were traveling in a single line toward the northeast. The lights were moving close together and eventually faded away.

A note on the bottom of the report said it could have been Space X satellites being released from the Falcon 9 capsule.

Read more: 60 mini satellites launched into space toward goal of global internet coverage

Additional reports to the UFO Reporting Center from Southern Utah since March include seeing multiple flashes of bright light in the sky on May 8; a traveler on Interstate 15 seeing a circular light hovering over the mountains in Washington County and a report of a fast-moving light that resembled a spider in April, and the sighting of a triangular light formation in March before that.

It remains to be seen whether the lights Monday morning involve an attempt by E.T. to phone home or Marvin the Martian trying to find a Q-36 Space Modulator.

St. George reporter Mikayla Shoup contributed to this report. 

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @MoriKessler

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2019, all rights reserved.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2019, all rights reserved.

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