WITNESSES: Patrick Trush/John Dowdy/George Montgomery.
Patrick Thrush was driving north on 27th Street E when he saw what he
thought was an airplane in trouble descending toward the Braden River.
As he reached the intersection of 27th Street and Manatee Avenue the
object had disappeared below the horizon.
Thrush turned west on Manatee Avenue and drove the short distance
to the river. At the river he pulled his car off the road onto an
embankment. As he started to turn the car around, the high beams from
his car picked up a silvery reflecting object hovering 20 feet above
the river. A tube extended from the object to the surface of the water.
"I just sat there a second," Thrush stated, then he took his camera
from the car and took two photographs, using a strobe. The camera was a
Canon FT-QL with a 55mm lens.
As soon as the flash went off, the tube, which had been at an
angle, straightened up and began retracting into the object. When the
tube disappeared, the object headed toward the embankment where Trush
was standing. He said he heard several loud clanks and a splash,
indicating that something had dropped in the water.
The object moved toward the car and descended slightly, passing
over the hood of the automobile, missing the car by about seven feet.
Thrush heard something hit the car hood; the object changed direction
and moved rapidly to the west, in a curved path.
When the object first began to move it was a pale bluish-green. As
it picked up speed it changed to a reddish-orange and rapidly
disappeared in the distance.
Thrush found three rocks in front of the car, which were warm and
dry. They were about one-half inch in diameter. He gave two of the
rocks to Bradenton Police Patrolman Christ Scmidt. The rocks were
analyzed as iron pyrite, a substance native to South America. The
stones were not radioactive. Thrush estimated that the object was about
30 feet in diameter and about 11 feet thick. It was about 35 feet from
shore while stationary.
At about 8:50, John Dowdy was driving on the Morgan-Johnson Road
about 2 miles west of Thrush when he saw a bright orange object moving
at high speed. The object turned southward, slowed to a stop and
disappeared. In the same time period, George Montgomery glanced out of
a west window in his home in Palma Sola to see an unusual light in the
sky. The light consisted of a bright light with smaller lights above
and below it. The two merged into the bright light and disappeared,
after about 5 seconds.
The remaining rock is being analyzed at the University of Florida
by Dr. Larry Doyle. Doyle stated that a preliminary examination showed
the rock to be a cinder produced from an extreme heat source. Further
analysis is being done.
source and references:
MUFON UFO SYMPOSIUM PROCEEDINGS, 1974, pp. 52-52. © MUFON
1974.
With thanks to MUFON and John Schuessler for permission to post to this
website.