Case · C-016
Levelland: engines that die and lights along the roads
Levelland, Texas · United States · Nov 2, 1957 – Nov 3, 1957
In flight Mixed witness types
Disputed explanation
- What happened
- During the night the Levelland police received fifteen reports of objects or lights; several motorists reported that the engine and headlights of their cars had gone out as the object approached and had come back on when it moved away, and the sheriff and the fire chief also said they had seen something. An Air Force noncommissioned officer spent seven hours in town and questioned three witnesses; critics note that the others were not heard. The Project Blue Book file (81 pages) is available online.
- Proposed explanation
- The Air Force concluded it was a violent thunderstorm, with ball lightning or St. Elmo's fire, and attributed the failures to wet electrical circuits, an explanation shared by Donald Menzel. The physicist James McDonald stated in 1968 to a House committee that there were no thunderstorms or lightning that night and only traces of rain; Hynek later wrote that he had accepted the official explanation too quickly.
- Official investigation
- U.S. Air Force (Project Blue Book)
Official documents
- Project Blue Book: Levelland UFO case, November 2-3, 1957 (fascicolo del caso) · U.S. Air Force – Project Blue Book (The Black Vault copy) · 1957
Sources
On this site
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