{"it":{"id":"UFO-SOC1964","name":"Lonnie Zamora (Socorro) landing","kind":"ufo","sub":"Historical sighting","place":"Socorro, New Mexico, USA","lat":34.05,"lon":-106.9,"date":"1964-04-24","rep":"Egg shape, insignia, small figures.","off":"Blue Book: unknown. Alternatives: a lunar-lander test or a student hoax.","src":[{"t":"Wikipedia: Lonnie Zamora incident","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonnie_Zamora_incident"},{"t":"FBI file 62-HQ-83894, serial 438: Socorro, Officer Lonnie Zamora, 24 April 1964","u":"https://www.bluebook.one/case/62-HQ-83894/serial/438"}],"tags":["Sightings"],"sum":"On 24 April 1964, Socorro officer Lonnie Zamora saw an egg-shaped object 150 to 200 yards away with small figures beside it. Blue Book listed it as unknown.","nsrc":2,"new":1,"qs":["Blue Book explained thousands of cases but called Socorro 'unknown'. If a student prank fooled the Air Force's own investigators, what else did?","A cop, an egg-shaped craft, ground traces, and an official 'unknown'. If one case like this is real, what does it mean for all the others?","Was Socorro a secret lunar-lander test the public was never told about? If so, why let 'unknown' stand for decades?"],"yt":"Measure the ground traces Blue Book recorded against a lander test.","rel":["GOV-PBB"],"hook":"In 1964 a police officer stopped 150 ft from a white, egg-shaped craft. Blue Book never explained it.","why":"A police officer's 1964 report of a landed egg-shaped craft and two figures, which the Air Force's Project Blue Book left unidentified."},"S":{},"rec":{"id":"UFO-SOC1964","sum":"On 24 April 1964, at about 5:45 pm, Socorro police officer Lonnie Zamora gave up chasing a speeding car south of the town in New Mexico. He had heard a roar and seen a flame in the sky to the southwest, and thought a dynamite shack had blown up.\n\nThe Air Force's case file records what he found. Off the road he saw a shiny object that at first looked like a car upside down, and he thought some kids might have turned it over. Beside it were two people in white coveralls. He stopped about 150 ft away and saw a white, egg-shaped object standing on girder-like legs.\n\nWhat is hard to explain is what came next. The object rose with a roar and a blue flame tipped with orange, showing a red insignia, and flew off. Police and an FBI agent, Byrnes, found burned brush and marks in the ground. An FBI teletype called the officer sober, dependable and \"not of fantasy\". Laboratory tests found no foreign material or raised radiation in the soil and no propellant chemicals in the burned brush.\n\nProject Blue Book, the Air Force's study of UFO reports, looked for a hoax and found no sign of one. Its record card says it first suspected a lunar module type craft, but no vehicle could be placed at the site, so the case was carried as unidentified. Its 168-page file sits in record group 341 at the National Archives. Some see a true landing; sceptics suspect a prank or a secret test.\n\nWhat landed in the desert that afternoon?","qs":["Blue Book called Socorro unidentified. What would it take to explain it now?","Police and an FBI agent found burned brush and marks in the ground. How strong is physical trace evidence?","The FBI called the officer sober and not given to fantasy. Should a witness's job change how much we trust a report?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/Project_Blue_Book_report_-_1964-04-8694587-Socorro-NewMexico.pdf/page1-1280px-Project_Blue_Book_report_-_1964-04-8694587-Socorro-NewMexico.pdf.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Project_Blue_Book_report_-_1964-04-8694587-Socorro-NewMexico.pdf","title":"Project Blue Book report - 1964-04-8694587-Socorro-NewMexico.pdf","lic":"Public domain","licurl":"","by":"Project Blue Book","cap":"First page of the Project Blue Book case file for Lonnie Zamora (Socorro) landing","alt":"First page of the Project Blue Book case file for Lonnie Zamora (Socorro) landing"},{"src":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Lonnie_Zamora-tuig_van_24_April_1964_te_Secorro%2C_NM%2C_a.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lonnie_Zamora-tuig_van_24_April_1964_te_Secorro,_NM,_a.jpg","title":"Lonnie Zamora-tuig van 24 April 1964 te Secorro, NM, a.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","by":"JMK","alt":"Lonnie Zamora-tuig van 24 April 1964 te Secorro, NM, a"}],"ms":[],"aa":[],"ac":[],"src":[{"t":"Wikipedia: Lonnie Zamora incident","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonnie_Zamora_incident"},{"id":"VUFO-SOC1964-2","t":"FBI Vault: UFO, Part 13","u":"https://vault.fbi.gov/UFO/UFO%20Part%2013/view"},{"id":"VUFO-SOC1964-3","t":"U.S. National Archives: Project Blue Book case file, Socorro, New Mexico, April 1964","u":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/302532129"}],"pts":[{"p":"Police officer Zamora saw an object at 150–200 yd.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Lonnie Zamora incident","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonnie_Zamora_incident"},{"p":"Ground markings were reported at the landing site.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Lonnie Zamora incident","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonnie_Zamora_incident"},{"p":"Blue Book listed the case as \"unknown\".","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Lonnie Zamora incident","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonnie_Zamora_incident"},{"p":"Zamora died 2 Nov 2009.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Lonnie Zamora incident","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonnie_Zamora_incident"}]},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":null,"hs":{},"lh":{"s":"img/h/UFO-SOC1964.webp","w":1280,"h":1020,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/Project_Blue_Book_report_-_1964-04-8694587-Socorro-NewMexico.pdf/page1-1280px-Project_Blue_Book_report_-_1964-04-8694587-Socorro-NewMexico.pdf.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}