Encounter of the Third Kind
Date: April 24, 1964
Location: Socorro, New Mexico, United States
The following case is indubitably one of the most convincing and compelling encounters of the third kind. Not only did the witness report seeing an extraterrestrial aircraft land on the ground, but also reported seeing two humanoid figures alongside the aircraft. What follows is the account of Lonnie Zamora who, on April 24, 1964, had an otherworldly encounter.
Zamora was a sergeant police officer stationed in Socorro, New Mexico. It was around 17:45 when Zamora was on duty, chasing a speeding car in Socorro. At some point during the chase, Zamora heard a loud roar that lasted for at least ten seconds, followed by a large bluish orange flame just above where a dynamite shack was located. Naturally, Zamora assumed there had been an incident and the dynamite shack had exploded, and thus, he abandoned the car chase and began driving toward the location.
As he reached the top of the hill beyond where the shack was located, approximately two hundred yards away from his position, he noticed a shiny object and two figures standing beside it. From afar, the object appeared to be an upside down car, and Zamora initially thought that the two people needed assistance. As he started driving toward them, he noticed they were dressed in all white overalls. As the car approached the shiny object, one of the beings spotted Zamora and seemed startled by his presence. Zamora noted how they did not seem to have any unfamiliar characteristics, but, given that he only got a glimpse at the beings, he was unable to provide a detailed description of their appearance.
Zamora contacted the sheriff’s office and informed them that he was assisting in a car accident and requested assistance. As he got closer to the object, he noticed that the shiny object was not a flipped car, as he had initially thought. Straight ahead was an aluminum, white-colored, oval-shaped object, which had an unusually smooth surface. In its center was a red insignia, which he assumed to be a lettering of some sort. Things continued to get even more bizarre. Once Zamora exited his vehicle, he heard a second loud roar, which rose in frequency. He also noted that as the frequency got louder, the oval-shaped object started ascending from the ground and a large, bluish orange flame radiated from beneath it. Zamora assumed that the object was about to explode so he turned and started running as fast as he could toward his vehicle, tripping and falling to the ground in the process. He covered his face expecting an explosion to happen at any second, but the roar simply dissipated.
As he lifted his head, he saw the object move away from him toward the dynamite shack, just fifteen feet off the ground. The object was moving at an incredible speed. It flew beyond the Mile Canyon mountains and disappeared in a matter of seconds. Once Zamora reached his vehicle, he radioed the sheriff’s office once again and informed them of what he had just experienced.
Before going into the investigation, Zamora’s sighting was confirmed by a second witness who was driving north of Highway 85 (now Old Highway 85) at the time. The witness stated that he had seen a strange object in the sky and also reported that he had seen a police car going up the hill toward the object’s location.
The Investigation
Shortly after the object disappeared, State Patrol Sergeant Samuel Chavez and United States Army Captain Richard Holder arrived at the scene. The two officers noted how distraught Zamora seemed; he was unusually pale and was sweating profusely. Prior to their arrival, Zamora sketched the shape of the object on a piece of paper and the insignia that was on its surface. Once the area was secure, Zamora took Chavez and Holder to the location where he had first seen the strange aircraft.
At the landing site, they noted depressions on the ground and some brush that was on fire. Holder obtained soil samples and sent them to Dr. J. Allen Hynek for analysis. Once Zamora gained his composure, he was able to describe the encounter in a more detailed manner. He explained how when he had first seen the object, he noticed that it did not have any doors or windows. However, when he fell to the ground, he heard what he thought to be a door shutting closed, which would have explained the humanoids’ disappearance. The oval-shaped object also had two legs that emerged from its center to the ground, acting as landing gear.
After a couple of hours, word of the sighting started to spread, and news stations and organizations started arriving at the scene. As the case started getting media coverage, Captain Hector Quintanilla, the head of Project Blue Book at the time, instructed Sergeant David Moody to go to the scene and carry out an investigation on the air force’s behalf. Early on in the investigation, Moody was able to confirm that the object could not have been a military aircraft. He had contacted Kirtland Air Force Base and was told that all military helicopters were inside the hangars at the time. Moreover, meteorological stations confirmed that the encounter could not have been caused by atmospheric conditions.
The encounter was also independently investigated by the FBI, which noted that there were four smoldering areas and four depressed areas at the landing site. These depressed areas were sixteen by six inches arranged in a rectangular pattern, approximately twelve feet apart. Both the air force and the FBI stated that the encounter did happen, and they had no reason to believe that it was a hoax. However, they were unable to provide an explanation as to what the object or the humanoid beings were. Quintanilla said of the sighting, “There is no doubt that Lonnie Zamora saw an object that left quite an impression on him. There is also no question about Zamora’s reliability. He is a serious police officer, a pillar of his church, and a man well versed in recognizing airborne vehicles in his area. He is puzzled by what he saw, and frankly, so are we. This is the best-documented case on record, and still we have been unable, in spite of thorough investigation, to find the vehicle or other stimulus that scared Zamora to the point of panic.” 93
The soil samples that were given to Hynek revealed interesting factors. The analysis compared the components of the burned soil to regular soil, and the results showed that the burned soil did not contain any foreign materials. This means that there were no propellants of any kind or an unusual radiation level. Four years after the sighting in 1968, Dr. James McDonald, an American physicist and UFO researcher, was able to locate the person who had carried out the laboratory analysis on the soil samples, Mary Mayes. Mayes stated that the analysis on the soil sample showed that there were two organic substances that could not be identified. This implies that the components in the sample were unnatural, contradicting what the air force had concluded. It also proved that the official report published by the air force did not disclose the full details of the analysis and the investigation.
Interestingly, the day after the analysis was carried out, Mayes stated that she and her colleagues were visited by an air force official who took all of their notes and ordered them not to speak about the investigation or the analysis they had just performed.
Conclusion
Zamora’s encounter with the unknown may seem to be the perfect case that proves that an extraterrestrial race has visited our planet. Although the air force did not provide an explanation as to what the UFO or the humanoid beings were, they stated that there was not enough evidence to definitely state that this was an encounter of the third kind. With that being said, Hynek himself had interviewed Zamora on numerous occasions and he himself believed that he was being truthful.
I firmly believe that this case is one of the most clear-cut cases that proves the presence of extraterrestrial intelligence. All the evidence and details prove just that. However, it is also evident that even when there is the evidence to support this claim, the air force still does not acknowledge the extraterrestrial hypothesis as a plausible one.
93. National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, The UFO Evidence.