The Socorro UFO Incident: Eye Witness 'Lonnie Zamora' Passes Away

Greetings Forumerions,

Ufology has lost another significant party in the passing of Lonnie Zamora:

Veteran researcher, and lead investigator of the Socorro Incident, Ray Stanford has informed The UFO Chronicles, that former Socorro, New Mexico police officer and preeminent eyewitness to one of the most well-known UFO cases in history, "Lonnie Zamora" died Monday night of heart failure.

The rest of the story . . .

Respectfully,
Frank Warren

Thanks for sharing this very unfortunate news. Looks like any further investigation is mute at this point with the primary witness passing away. Here is some further information for those not familiar with the Zamora Case:

The Socorro UFO Landing
Date and Location: April 24th, 1964 Socorro, New Mexico
Witness: Officer Lonnie Zamora

Image courtesy of science.howstuffworks.com

This is one of the top cases in Ufology and also has the primary witness being a police officer. This report is also in the USAF Project Bluebook. Here is a brief report on what happened that day:

The witness in the Socorro case is a well-respected policeman, Lonnie Zamora, who claimed in the report he filed (included in Project Blue Book, Brad Steiger, Ed., 1976) that he saw a flame in the sky, "bluish and sort of orange too...sort of motionless flame, slowly descending.

Narrower at top than at bottom...Sun was to west and did not help vision. Had green sunglasses over prescription glasses. Could not see bottom of flame because it was behind the hill....noise was a roar, not a blast..." The policeman drove around the area trying to see the flame again, and said he suddenly came across "a shiny type object ... oval in shape. It was smooth - no windows or doors. ... seemed like a "O" in shape and I at first glance took it to be overturned car.

" He also described "two people in white coveralls...two persons..." Zamora said he saw the two people at a distance of 150 to 200 yards, and that "they appeared normal in shape... but possibly they were small adults or large kids." He also noted "what appeared to be two legs of some type from the object to the ground...the two legs were at the bottom of the object, slanted outwards to the ground." Zamora then got closer to the object, got out of his car, heard a loud roar, saw a flame, ran, bumped his leg, lost his glasses, and kept on going. He saw the object fly up, and move 10 to 15 feet above the ground, and then leave the area "travelling very fast." He radioed his dispatcher to look out his window for "an object .... it looks like a balloon." Nearby, the bushes were still smoldering. News reports in the local paper, El Defensor Chieftain, also mentioned "an unidentified tourist" who remarked about how "aircraft flew low around here," and that the strange object was a "funny-looking helicopter, if that's what it was."


Zamora's earnest nature and credibility, along with the physical traces, brought the Socorro "landing" to national attention. J. Allen Hynek came to town, and was very interested in the pod-like tracks and burn marks at the scene. Ray Stanford wrote a whole book about the incident, Socorro Saucer in a Pentagon Pantry. Phil Klass came to investigate. The Socorro event has appeared in numerous books and articles, and was even featured on Unsolved Mysteries.

nmsr.org

Summary of Physical Evidence

* Scorch marks on ground in reported landing site.
* Abnormal readings in surrounding plant life.
* Indentations on ground in reported landing site.
* Burnt brush around reported landing site.

Here you can see two of the original photos of the site, beware they are not great quality...



This shows the circular burn pattern...


Image courtesy of Bluebookarchive.org:NARA-PBB94-582 and Bluebookarchive.org:NARA-PBB94-581



So what really happened there? Is a distinguished police officer lying, or perhaps he was mistaken on what he saw? There are several alternate hypotheses which I will go over now.

Alternate Hypotheses

1.Propaganda hoax by the cities mayor or hoax by college physics students.

Either one of these are highly unlikely as there is no supporting evidence for either of these scenarios.

2. Test of Apollo lander or a helicopter carrying a Lunar Surveyer.

The lander scenario is not possible because there were no lander prototypes operational in 1964. The Lunar Surveyor is more plausible of an explanation, however after further research you can see from the range log from Holloman AFB in Alamogordo, NM the only tests of the Surveyor were conducted in the morning. Zamora’s sighting happened at 5:45 PM, although tests can be carried out ‘off schedule’ there is no evidence that this was the case on the evening of April 24th.


Image of test log courtesy of nmsr.org

Of course any hot air balloon is out of the realm of possibility because the maneuvers described by the witness. This case is still officially open and unresolved, but the evidence is extremely strong in favor of a UFO landing.The following is a direct quote from the investigators of Project Bluebook:

"There is no doubt that Lonnie Zamora saw an object which left quite an impression on him. There is also no question about Zamora's reliability. He is a serious 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."

rense.com

Here is some information on the surrounding plant life and the fused sand…

When interviewed by McDonald, Mayes reported that she and two others had worked on studying physical evidence from the Socorro site, but she could not remember the names of the others. According to Mayes, she had examined the site the day after the event, and had gathered plant samples for analysis. Mayes later determined that the plants which had allegedly been burnt by the UFO's flames were, unusually, "completely dried out". (Druffel, 219) Mayes also found no evidence of radiation, but found "two organic substances" she was unable to identify. (Druffel, 219)
Mayes also reported to McDonald an area of apparently "fused sand", where the sand had taken on a glassy appearance, near where the object had allegedly landed and then departed. The area of glassy sand was roughly triangular, measuring about 25 to 30 inches (760 mm) at its widest, though it gradually tapered down to about 1 inch wide; it seemed about a quarter of an inch thick. Mayes thought the glassy areas looked as if a "hot jet hit it." (Druffel, 219)

wikipedia.org
Picture of the researchers investigating the area, you can see some of the charred brush in the photograph:

Image courtesy of science.howstuffworks.com

We have a police officers testimony of seeing a UFO land and two of its occupants coming out. Then we have physical evidence left at the site in the form of burn marks and radiation type readings in the area. All the alternative theories for this case are lax at best in my opinion, but you can judge for yourself.

***UPDATE: Member IsaacKoi presented a thread that has information he found that disputes (rather loosely IMHO) the Socorro Incident: Famous Socorro landing case a hoax?


Sources
nmsr.org
science.howstuffworks.com
rense.com
wikipedia.org
ufocasebook.com
unexplainedresearch.com
theblackvault.com
ufoevidence.conforums.com
ufoevidence.org
greatdreams.com

(Sources contain links to other very good trace cases as well )

Information taken from: Three of The Best UFO Trace Cases (New Bob White Evidence Included)




[edit on 11/4/2009 by jkrog08]

From what I have gathered it appears that this incident has already been debunked and proven as a HOAX attempt by one of the college students during that area of an incident.

reply to post by krystalice


I suggest you read ALL the information regarding the "reported debunking" before coming to that conclusion. This case is FAR from a hoax, and in fact it seems MUCH more likely it was legit, if one takes time to use logic and look at actual research.

BTW: All the necessary information for ease of research is provided in my post.

[edit on 11/4/2009 by jkrog08]

This is sad news. It seems all that the powers that be have to do is keep up the lie until all the witnesses die!!!

👽🛸🐇🕍