Socorro landing: Lonnie Zamora's report of a craft in an arroyo, 24 April 1964 (1964)
Police sergeant Lonnie Zamora reported a whitish, egg-shaped object with two small figures beside it south of Socorro, New Mexico, on 24 April 1964; Blue Book listed it as unidentified.
- Case number
- TU-1964-900001
- Date
- 25 April 1964
- Location
- Arroyo south of Socorro, Socorro County, New Mexico, United States
- Coordinates
- 34.042° N, 106.898° W
- Shape
- sphere
- Colour
- Unknown
- Witnesses
- 1
- Status
- unresolved
Case summary
At about 5.45 p.m. local time on 24 April 1964, Socorro police sergeant Lonnie Zamora broke off a chase south of the town after hearing a roar and seeing a flame to the south-west, which he took to be an explosion at a local dynamite shack. In a dry arroyo he reported seeing, some 150 to 200 yards away, a whitish object 'like aluminium', shaped like the letter O, with two figures in white overalls standing beside it whom he described as normal in shape, possibly small adults or large children. He said a roar and a blue-and-orange flame came from beneath the object before it rose and moved away at speed.
Other officers arriving at the site found scorched grass and brush and shallow impressions in the ground. The case went to Project Blue Book, whose consultants examined the ground traces; Blue Book's file records the sighting as unidentified. A contemporaneous official memorandum of 8 May 1964 documented Zamora's report and the state of the site.
Proposed explanations include a lunar-lander test from the nearby White Sands Missile Range, a hoax by New Mexico Tech students, and a mirage of the star Canopus. None has been established, and no second witness reported seeing the object itself.
Nearby strategic sites
- F.E. Warren Air Force Base — 810 km away