Sighting record / 1975
November 5, 1975. 4:39 a.m. Florida Highway Patrol trooper Thomas Leis saw three objects over Dade County. Flashing red and blue lights alternated on them. One white light stayed constant. He watched two of them for around 90 minutes. The third disappeared before the others. He radioed headquarters. Trooper John Lelikis had seen the same thing, plus two more near the airport. Four other troopers said they had seen the objects too. "I'm not going to say they were UFOs," Leis said, "but they were certainly unnatural phenomena." That same day, in Arizona, the Travis Walton abduction claim began. The Florida lights slipped into its shadow.
Autumn 1975. Dade County, Florida, known today as Miami-Dade. In the early hours of Wednesday, November 5, troopers of the Florida Highway Patrol were on duty in different parts of the county. What they reported reached the Miami News that same day, under Ian Glass's byline: "Troopers Spot 'Flying Objects' Over Miami." Troopers across the county, Glass wrote, had reported "as many as five 'mysterious flying objects.'"