Special Release Episode: "It Came from the Sky"

Caribbean Mystics

On April 4th, 1996, Steve Thornton and three friends embarked on a boat journey from St. Thomas to Tortola under eerily calm conditions. Midw

Key takeaways

• The sighting occurred during a rare calm sea and lunar eclipse, enhancing the surreal atmosphere.
• Steve's aviation background allowed him to rule out conventional aircraft or weather phenomena.

Main topics

• Unidentified flying objects (UFOs)
• Lunar eclipse and celestial phenomena

Notable quotes

"It was like almost bright day. We could see ourselves."

Conclusion

Steve Thornton's encounter remains unresolved decades later, blending physical observation with a

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:01) Welcome to the Caribbean Mystics Podcast, where the veil between the worlds is thin. I'm your host, Gabrielle. I explore the true supernatural stories born from our island's unique blend of mysticism, superstition, and lore. These are real accounts from real people, and the encounter you're about to hear might just be from your very own backyard. Speaker 2 (0:37) My name is Steve Thornton, and I was born and raised in the Virgin Islands. And when I was a real young child, I remember seeing unusual activity in the sky. But being a young child, I kind of had to dismiss it as I got older. But I definitely used to watch what I thought were ships Speaker 1 (1:07) from somewhere else. And I don't know, I just always had it. I Speaker 2 (1:12) was always looking up at the sky. As a matter of fact, I was always in... into anything that was in the sky. Weather, airplanes. I actually ended up going to flight school for my first college. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida was my first college that I went to because I wanted to be a pilot. Speaker 2 (1:40) And so Speaker 1 (1:41) from Speaker 2 (1:42) when I was a little kid, I could identify just about every aircraft. I was really into the Navy. When the Navy aircraft carriers would come to St. Thomas, my dad got me out on all those. carriers that would visit and I got to meet the pilots and they used to fly around, military aircraft used to fly around the islands in the 80s when I was young and the 90s. So I was pretty well schooled in all the different aircraft that were Speaker 2 (2:17) operational back in the days around this area. Also, when I went to flight school, I learned, I actually took courses in meteorology, which to me still is fascinating, but I'm able to identify pretty much anything atmospheric that can happen around here. My story starts back, it was on April 4th of 1996. Speaker 2 (2:48) In the early afternoon, midday, I guess, I had stopped at a gas station. Speaker 1 (2:56) in Speaker 2 (2:56) Red Speaker 1 (2:56) Hook. Speaker 2 (2:57) And a friend of mine, my friend Paul Stokin, I ran into him and he was filling jerry jugs with gas. So I asked him what he was up to and he said that he had some friends visiting from Puerto Rico and that they were going to be going to Tortola that night for the full moon party and that they were going to be leaving from the St. Thomas Yacht Club. at 8 o'clock that night, and he invited me to come along. I lived right next to the St. Thomas Yacht Club at the time, and I went to... Went back to my house and was really tired. So I decided to take a nap and literally woke up about 10 minutes to 8 and rushed my way down to the boat to join them. Just barely caught them as they were leaving the dock and jumped aboard. It was a beautiful night. in the fact that there was absolutely zero wind. The sea was flat glass calm, which is very rare for the Virgin Islands. So you can count those days on one to two hands for the whole year. So we are all a bit excited in the fact that we're on a... Speaker 2 (4:20) About a 20-foot long, maybe just under 20-foot long banana boat with an outboard, a 40-horse outboard. And instead of beating our way out to the eight miles up to Tortola, we were going to get a nice flat-collar ride. We headed out, took the north side of St. John, and we decided to swing out to the north of Johnson's Reef, almost heading towards Yost at first. before we would turn and cross the border and head to the north side of Tortola. We actually stopped the boat north of Johnson's Reef, out in the middle of the ocean there, because there was a nice hole in the upper cloud cover. Above St. John, we were looking off at an angle. to the east, and there was a