A Row of Lighted Windows over the Gulf

Captain Eckerman Sannes and his wife Dorothy were driving slowly along Cortez Road, between Bradenton and Cortez, on the night of 27 January 1949. Sannes was an officer with the 2200th Climatic Test Squadron at Eglin AFB. Out over the Gulf, 8 to 10 miles off, they saw what looked like a horizontal row of brilliantly lighted windows about the length of two Pullman cars. They saw it twice. Through 7x50 binoculars a faint outline showed, shaped like a cucumber. It threw pale-red sparks and flames brighter than the exhaust of a V-1, pulsing at split-second intervals in an inverted V. It came from the south and turned west. Then it climbed erratically in "bounces" of about 2,000 ft with occasional drops of about 4,000 ft until they lost it. They heard no sound.

What is on the record

The Project Blue Book file numbers it Incident 252. The interrogating officer described Sannes as "mature, serious, disturbed by incident". The index form carries the word "Cucumber" beside the sketch notation. No evaluation is legible in the file.

The time is not settled. The file gives both 22:20 and 23:20 EST, and the first report says 22:20. Berliner gives it a duration of 25 minutes and Eberhart at 22:20 to 23:20. The surname is Sannes in the file and in Eberhart, though Berliner and Overmeire print it Sames. NICAP lists the case as Blue Book 284 where the file says Incident 252. Berliner counts it among the Blue Book Unknowns, and Hatch's database lists it too.

Why it sits where it does

L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD — a released government record names who saw it. The file identifies Eckerman and Dorothy Sannes. They watched from the same car, and the archive holds nothing from outside the file to set beside their joint report. The tier measures sourcing, not truth. What lit up over the Gulf that night is not resolved here.