Levelland UFO Case
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The Levelland UFO Case occurred on November 2-3, 1957 in the small town of Levelland, Texas. Levelland, which in 1957 had a population of about 10,000, is located west of Lubbock on the flat prairie of the Texas panhandle. The case is considered to be one of the most impressive in UFO history, mainly because of the large number of witnesses involved over a relatively short period of time.
The Incident
The incident began late on the evening of November 2, 1957. There had been thunderstorms in the area earlier in the day, but it was only cloudy and misty during the evening. The sightings began when two frightened immigrant farm workers, Pedro Saucedo and Joe Salaz, called the Levelland police department to report a UFO sighting. Saucedo told policeman AJ Fowler that they had been driving four miles west of Levelland when both men spotted a blue flash of light near the road. Their truck's engine died, and a rocket-shaped object rose up and approached the truck. The truck rocked from the object's blast. As it moved away the truck's engine restarted and worked normally. Fowler, believing the story to be a joke, ignored it. However, an hour later another motorist, Jim Wheeler, called to report a UFO sighting four miles east of Levelland. This time an egg-shaped object was sitting in the road, blocking his path and glowing bright blue. Wheeler's vehicle died, and as he got out of his car the UFO took off and its lights went out. As it moved away, Wheeler's car restarted and worked normally. At 10:55 a married couple driving northeast of Levelland reported that they saw a bright flash of light moving across the sky and their headlights and radio died for three seconds. Five minutes later Jose Alvarez met the strange object sitting on the road 11 miles north of Levelland, and his vehicle's engine died until the UFO flew away. At 12:05 AM (November 3), a college student named Newell Wright was surprised when, driving 10 miles east of Levelland, his car suddenly died. When he got out to check on the problem, he saw a "100-foot-long" egg-shaped object sitting in the road. It took off, and his engine started running again. At 12:15 AM Officer Fowler received another call, this time from a farmer named Frank Williams. Williams added a twist to the reports: the egg-shaped object's blue glow pulsated, and each time it glowed brightly, his engine died. Other witnesses to the UFO were Ronald Martin at 12:45 AM and James Long at 1:15 AM.
By now the Levelland police department had taken action, and several policemen were actively patrolling for the UFO. Among them was Weir Clem, Levelland's Sheriff. At 1:30 AM Clem and a deputy saw a brilliant red object moving across the sky. At 1:45 Levelland's Fire Chief, Ray Jones, also saw the object and his vehicle's lights and engine sputtered. The sightings apparently ended soon after this incident.
Air Force Explanation and Controversy
The Levelland sightings received national publicity, and were soon investigated by Project Blue Book, the US Air Force's official research group which investigated UFO sightings from 1947-1969. After interviewing only three of the eyewitnesses - Saucedo, Wheeler, and Wright, and after learning that thunderstorms had been present in the area earlier in the day, the Air Force investigators concluded that the sightings and engine failures had been caused by ball lightning and/or St. Elmo's fire. However, two prominent UFO researchers strongly disagreed with this conclusion. Dr. James McDonald, a prominent professor of physics at the University of Arizona, did a thorough study of the case several years later. After interviewing all of the eyewitnesses and checking local weather records, he concluded that there was no thunderstorm in the area at the time and that ball lightning and St. Elmo's fire could not possibly have accounted for the incident. Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a professor of astronomy and scientific consultant to Project Blue Book, also ruled out ball lightning and St. Elmo's fire as possible causes for the incident. As Hynek noted, there is an "absence of evidence that ball lightning can stop cars and put out headlights." Currently most Ufologists, or UFO researchers, regard the case as unexplained.
Source
"Levelland Sightings", pages 581-582, The UFO Encyclopedia, Second Edition. Jerome Clark, author. Detroit: Omnigraphics, Inc., 1998.
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