A police officer sees a UFO and its occupants land in the New Mexico desert.
What did Lonnie Zamora see?
Did a UFO land in the New Mexico desert?
CASE DETAILS
On April 24, 1964, in the small town of Socorro, New Mexico, Police Officer Lonnie Zamora spotted a local teenager speeding through town. Officer Zamora followed the teenager to the edge of Socorro and out into the desert. Zamora had no idea the strange twist his life was about to take:
“I could see a white object to my left there. I thought it was a turned-over car. When I got up on top of the mesa there, I looked down, and I saw this big white object on the ground. I thought I could see something around the craft there. I could see some figures. Looked like they were walking around the craft.”
The military responded immediately
According to Lonnie, there were red markings on the hull; a vertical arrow with a horizontal line beneath it and a crescent-shaped line above it. Lonnie tried to radio police headquarters but was not able to break through the heavy static. After hearing two metallic sounds, like doors clanging shut, Lonnie said he noticed the small figures were gone:
“I saw this flame come up from underneath it, then I ran back behind the car, and it went up two, 20, 30 feet up in the air. It just stayed there for a while. And then, finally, it just took off slowly to the west. At first, you know, after I got to my senses, I said, ‘Did I see it or didn’t I, you know? What happened, you know?’”
With his radio now static free, Lonnie called an old friend, Sergeant Sam Chavez of the New Mexico State Police and told him to hurry to the site:
“I could tell that Lonnie was excited and probably scared. Lonnie Zamora, he’s a very dependable, honest type of person. He’s not one to create or make stories or build things up to make it exciting or anything like that.”
There were no footprints found
When Sam arrived, he and Lonnie noticed what looked like landing marks on the ground:
“We found some indentation on the ground where this thing had landed and the marks into the ground were 9 inches deep, 8 inches long, and 9 inches wide. I started looking for tracks, human tracks, but the only thing I found were impressions on the ground that were made by a perfect circle. But I found no human tracks. No shoe prints.”
U.S. Army officials at the nearby White Sands Missile Range sent Captain Richard T. Holder to investigate:
“My first impression was that it was something from the range that needed possible help. You know, first aid, attention, or at best, security. The more I got into it, the less convinced I was that that was the case.”
Holder noticed the unusual marks left in the sand and a bush burned to a crisp on only one side:
“Everything we saw seemed to support the story that officer Zamora recounted. Nothing gave me the slightest hint that he did this as a hoax or cooked it up for fame or fortune.”
The sighting made headlines around the world
After their investigation, the Air Force agreed that Lonnie saw something, but they insisted that it must have been a secret military aircraft. UFO expert and author Jerome Clark said the official explanation doesn’t hold water:
“They never were able to find any such evidence that any such thing was being tested at the time. And, in fact, even today, not an iota of evidence has emerged to support that claim. Nonetheless, the Air Force line on the case is that this is a credible witness. He clearly saw some kind of structured flying vehicle and that it must have been something that we built even if we can’t find it anywhere.”
Air Force officials brought in Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a respected astronomer and consultant on Project Bluebook, the Air Force’s official study of the UFO phenomenon. Dr. Hynek found the physical evidence convincing. But according to Jerome Clark, the most persuasive argument was Lonnie Zamora himself:
“Dr. Hynek was enormously impressed by Lonnie Zamora. He thought there was virtually no possibility of a hoax. He expressed huge disdain for the Bluebook handling of the report. And he said it was clear that the story that Bluebook had cooked up about this possibly being some kind of experimental aircraft was a story that even Bluebook knew to be untrue, but which was invented to keep Congress from harassing the Air Force.”
How do we explain what Lonnie Zamora saw? No matter what others believe, Lonnie has no doubt that what he witnessed was not of this earth:
“If they want to believe me, good. If they don’t want to believe me, it’s all right, too.”
Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season eight with Robert Stack and in season one with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu.
Alain Valade
. . . . . I wrote too about Prime Numbers : Do ALAIN VALADE KUZEO = I have 32 emails on this site and it is the second . Thank you .
Alain
Why would the military lie about flight 19 ? Because it is a question of credibility , pride , fame , moral contract of protection and finally money because of the prosecution due to the very bad decision to force Taylor to do the mission when nothing justified such firmness of imposition because , after all , the war had ended for at least 4 months ( 1 ) .
Postscript : We cannot know absolutely as with a Nobel type proof if Taylor really left 3 planes , 2 of which were due to disorientation BUT since we can make a coherent , balanced and realistic as well as harmonious story then I put that first and allows one to reasonably conclude that the information must be true in principle . Chance or “ my madness“ could not allow such a story .
( 1 ) And the situation is worse if we know his file of 2 planes ( ? ) left behind by disorientation .
Truths make it possible to make stories that hold together logically , but not lies . If the 4 planes are not the right ones then we cannot make a story as my analyses claim by looking for them elsewhere since logically we fail . . . . . . if we rely on human behavior . There is always a way to cheat with plane numbers that accommodate us .
Alain
I sent to Fredzone ( Do on Google and use the french word RESOLU = Hinterkaifeck resolu ) a slightly more structured explanation .
Thank you for your trust and your judgment because many unexplained cases remain unexplained because of our mental closures .
Alain
Purely philosophical communication : Do . . .Vol 19 , 5 decembre 1945 over-blog and go to OVER-BLOG . Then I admit that it is easy to conclude after the fact but for the INTERKAIFECK case in 1922 : The missing bunch of keys + a Munich newspaper article found in the entrance + footsteps in the snow towards the barn ARE a message from the killer = I am coming . . . + the house and its inhabitants belong to me . . .+ remember Munich : Something terrible happened in Munich during the war 14-18 and we wanted revenge ??
Alain
About children Sodder in 1945 , you can go on the site Tutorial At Home because I wrote a little on this case . These children go out on their own will probably , so ,they were not in the house . Christmas and love were the pretext to trap naive children . And the 2 women with the 2 men were to give children confidence . The children almost certainly knew at least one of them , hence their confidence .
Alain
Only for this site without highlighting it : Go to the IN MYSTERIAM site using my name + Eilean Mor .
P.S : You had to assume that MacArthur came out first and not last to make a story . Thank you.
Alain
You may too go on the site * Tutorial At Home * because , now , I told a little message on the case Sodder family . The better answer is from the dog and cows !!
Patrick
So college students conceived and built a working oval craft that could hold 2 people and fly off at high speeds making sonic booming noises? Just ludicrous. We would have seen and heard about their invention in the last 50 years…someone would’ve been gloating about it. Very credible sighting of a UFO from Lonnie.
Tom
Yet that is not what the officer said he saw. It was a balloon like object. He never saw the figures get into or out of the object. It rose slowly.
Tom
Most of what I have read on this treat the sighting and the witness as credible. The two main theories are that he witnessed an experimental or secret flight of some kind, or that it was a prank by the college students.
Adding weight to the second theory is that a former president of the university said he believes one of the students organized it. There is also various hearsay around the university which supports this. But if it were a prank you would think someone would eventually come forward.
Alain
That the police officer had never seen or heard a sound coming from the top of the engine because it was necessarily held by a cable (1) , even a very small one , leads us to absurdity . So either the police officer is lying and it is not true , or he is telling the truth and it is . We always come back to the quality of witnesses . It does not matter what academics think or believe . . . . .
(1) What else can we imagine in those years ?
P.S : In any case the UFOs are confirmed by the Unians ( Americans ) since september 19 2019 (?= +/-) , so I do not see the problem maintaining itself as a falsehood anymore . This only strengthens it .
Alain Valade
I am on 18 or 19 cases and only one ( Dyatlov ) concerns U F Os as an explination so if we divide 100 19 that gives about 5% which is in the line with the testimonies and explanations about UFOs when we want to make a sens . Other potential cases that may include UFOs : Do ALAIN VALADE + MAYAS ( 6 sites ) / Toungouska ; ALAIN VALADE + TOUNGOUSKA = Espace pour la vie site / Eilean Mor lighthouse : Mindshadow site . Others are : Neo ( I am ) like in the Matrix ; ALAIN VALADE + POLITIQUE = Le QUEBEC N`EST PAS LA CATALOGNE = about 50 e-mails down . Elisa Lam on HORREUR QUYÉBEC site ; about 5 e-mails / Folie Dansante on mindshadow and Curiocity sites / ALAIN VALADE + MUSULMANS = Bagnolet en vert site and D.B Cooper + ALAIN VALADE ; tutorialathome site = He never jumped . Thank you for this site and good reading .
Alain Valade
We have two cerebral hemispheres ( Positive=Frontal=Induction and Negative=Cortex=Deduction ) and it is better to be a very normal person but whose two hemispheres dialogue with each other than a genius but trapped in one hemisphere . For Dyatlov Pass and many other files , the specialists of Deduction one wich science is so much based are handcuffed because we have to make a story ( Induction ) but we think that this one will make itself by joining some deductive answers between them ! A theoretical and general vision is indispensable as a basis of support as for Evolution and Relativity . Finally , Dead science must be considered as a sect because its followers trust only their own and only one vision , the Deduction , therefore only one hemisphere works , so , we are crazy ! This is what makes us go around in circles and you can for example do ALAIN VALADE + MARY CELESTE and go to the site VOILE ET MOTEUR because I have an answer for this case and many others . I am intelligent ? No !!!….. I am only in the two places necessary because my two hemispheres work together . In my opinion , is being outwitted by Hercule Poirot who is less specialized but more complete since he does both ( Induction and Deduction ) . The moral ? To be balanced is superior to the speciality .
Alain Valade
The best example I can provide of the stupidity of Dead science is that of Dyatlov`s Pass : Go on Google and do ALAIN VALADE + DYATLOV and go to Paul Jorion`s site because I have 2 e-mails at the bottom . We have had the answer from the beginning but we have systematically rejected it . What energy wasted unnecessarily for almost 64 years !
Alain Valade
Dead science ( We rely solely on our knowledge and infer from it , so , if something violates that then we deny it ) always hides behind this seemingly magical phrase : EXTRAORDINARY ASSERTION REQUIRES EXTRAORDINARY PROOF . This sentence contains venom for them too because what is extraordinary ? . . . . to suppose the life elsewhere which visits us or to deny it ? The fossils were denied for centuries or even millennia because it was said that it was chance that made these forms or that it was God who had put them there to test our faith or others ! Ditto for the rogue waves 30 meters high because they were denied until 1936 despite dozens of sailors and centuries of testimonies from them who affirmed that they existed . Ditto for meteorites and their celestial origin which were only confirmed around 1850 despite centuries and millennia of testimonies . For the U.F.Os it will take how many centuries or testimonies ? Dead science is cast in stone and is unable to move unlike Living science which imagines , supposes and adapts all the time = Victory of cerebral movement over the inertia of knowledge . A long time ago I lived in an apartment and the neighbors downstairs were playing their music very loudly . I called the owner who came and saw for himself . After 3 calls to him and since he could not solve the problem then I had the problem to call him ! It looks like the 3 monkeys closing their eyes , ears and mouths . . . . and why not the noses ? P.S : My vision of two sciences ( Dead and Alive ) stems from our two hemispheres . A well-made brain works with both because the Cortex only deduces from its knowledge and the Frontal often induces from its imagination which unleashes the problems !!
Alain Valade
Ockham`s razor : All things being equal , we must go for the simplest . What is the easiest ? That 5% of U.F.O cases unexplained by science are true or that by virtue of our knowledge we are still unable to make sense of these U.F.Os so that they are false ? Does the unexplained 5% trump the 95% explained when there is no way to know how much of 95% is actually explained or at least definitely eliminates U.F.Os ? Ultimately the razor theory is for those who have the power to be right and don`t want to lose it . Those that only wait for proof violate the Ockham`s principle because they offer nothing but their ignorance with which they dare to pretend to criticize . For a duel to be equal and balanced , we must roll up our sleeves for both sides . Clearly , the progress can not come from the lazy .
Alain Valade
Regarding U.F.Os we are dealing with a belief if we base ourselves on supposed unproven facts but with a truth if we base ourselves on the numerous , solid and above all unexplained testimonies by scientists at the end of their arguments . About 4% to 5% of appearances are unexplained and inexplicable but for the remaining 95% , it is not proven that they are not U.F.Os , so , according to the Law of Probabilities , we must open one more window as for the Heads or Tails so 4 % becomes in my opinion 8% to 10% !!
Alain Valade
There are 3 kinds of intellectuals ; 1 – The Scientists . 2- The Scholars . 3- The Zeteticians . Scientists guess ,imagine and unravel problems like Einstein , Darwin , ect…. Scholars only know ans apply what Scientists find . And Zeteticians only blubber and criticize without making progress . In short Scientists PRODUCE , Scholars APPLY and Zeteticians are only their to put a spoke in the wheels . They do`nt understand that they are more the problem than the solution . So in total a Zetetician is not a scientist or a scholar and a scholar is not a scientist . The scholar is to scientist what the fan is to the artist . Even if the fan sings with the artist and has such a beautiful voice , that does not make him and artist because it is the artist who composed , imagined and made the song .
Alain Valade
It is essential to make a story with all the data otherwise , to take only what makes our business is for fools . I`ve seen Josh`s Expedition X and find them very naive with the logo and dates to match but everything else is overshadowed . Suffice to say that the police officer was crazy or somewhat deranged or had smoked a joint ! Project Bluebook was troubled but they too had smoked a joint ? Doing such a prank today is extremely difficult so imagine at that time ? It would have taken a helicopter that the officer would not have seen or heard . . . it is bordering on madness .
Jim
Could have been a prank created by New Mexico Institute of Technology students.
Bob Lazar
Lonnie seems very honest and believable. What else could he have saw? Sam Chavez also seemed very credible. No way the airForce had this technology in the 60s.
Hiker
The desert is the Quebradas, which is accessed thru the Quebradas Backcountry Byway. It literally borders the missile range. I go hiking thru the most untouched areas almost weekly. A VERY eerie place. Hiking thru the long arroyos, you see unexplained tracks and sounds. I NEVER go without my rifle. When the wind blows over some of the higher arroyos, they echo with what seem like screams. Just unsettling.
Robert Guthrie
Undoubtedly a real description of what one police officer had actually seen and experienced. The origins of the UFO remains a mystery.
Bill Blaski
Truly one of the best ufo stories of all time. Lonnie seems very trust worthy. I most certainly believe him.
Graham
This is among the top UFO sightings for me.
Rhonda
I think this might be one of the more “believable” ufo sightings. Always has fascinated me.
dg
I personally have seen a round craft with square windows or lights each with different color frame (red, green, blue)
Ralph Marshall
I myself have witnessed a ufo with my parents when I was quite young. my dad was in the Navy at the time. Two gentlemen showed up and talked to my dad and later, my dad told us to forget what we saw. I think that there is a government cover-up going on and they wont admit what is going on!!!
HornedGoat
If you’re talking about Socorro NM, yes there is a government coverup. All the cops are corrupt too
pOSTMORON
Could be Bullship too!
Mulder
One of the most fascinating UFO Cases of all time.
Thomas
Could be an alien UFO or something more extraterrestrial.