65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Serial_438
- Date
- 24 Apr 1964
- Place
- Socorro, New Mexico, United States
- Record
- Pentagon file
- Assessment
- Not assessed
- Evidence strength
What was reported
FBI Albuquerque report on the famous Lonnie Zamora Socorro, New Mexico case of 24 April 1964. FBI Special Agent D. Arthur Byrnes, Jr. was on other business at the Socorro State Police office when a radio call brought him to the site within about 30 minutes; he personally examined four rectangular ground depressions (~16x6 in, ~2 in deep) with burned grass clumps inside them and three smaller circular impressions, and vouches for Officer Zamora (known to him five years) as 'sober, industrious, and conscientious... not given to fantasy.' The serial also contains what appears to be Zamora's own field-interview notes (badly OCR'd): an egg/oval-shaped object with a roar, blue flame underneath, and two figures in white coveralls near it before it departed.
What officials concluded
Unresolved
The file gives no official explanation.
- Agency
- FBI
- Released in
- 123456
Evidence profile
- Yes: Visual
- No: Infrared
- No: Radar
- No: Video
- No: Photo
- No: Film
- No: Audio
- No: Night vision
- No: Other sensor
- No: Civilian
- No: Military aircrew
- No: Military ground
- No: Airline crew
- No: Sensor operator
- Yes: Law enforcement
- No: Scientist
- No: Astronaut
- No: Intelligence official
- No: Other
- No: Light only
- No: Orb or sphere
- No: Disc
- No: Triangle
- No: Cylinder
- No: Cube
- Yes: Other shape
- Yes: Physiological
- Yes: Physical trace
- Yes: Electromagnetic
- No: Sound
- No: Silent
Why this rating A named law-enforcement witness with a strong personal credibility assessment from an FBI agent who independently and promptly examined physical ground traces (indentations, burn marks) matching the witness's account; still single-witness for the visual sighting itself, no radar or instrumented data, and remains officially unresolved with no conventional explanation ever confirmed despite extensive Air Force and Condon Committee investigation.
As described in the file
- Witnesses
- Primary: Officer Lonnie Zamora, Socorro Police; corroborating on-scene physical examination by FBI SA D. Arthur Byrnes, Jr., Undersheriff Jim Luckie, Sgt. M.S. Chavez, Officer Ted Jordan (all arrived after the object had departed)
- Sensors
- Visual, physical-trace
- Shape
- Egg/oval shaped, per Zamora's field notes
- Lights and colour
- Blue flame observed underneath during departure
- Motion
- Roar during departure, described as not a blast
- Effects
- Four ~2-inch-deep ground depressions with burned grass clumps inside, three shallow circular marks in the sand; no radioactivity or soil testing mentioned in this serial
Pentagon files
65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Serial_438
Open the original on war.gov
What the file claims
- Unverified
An FBI agent personally examined four rectangular ground depressions and three circular marks at the site within roughly an hour of the sighting.
- Unverified
Zamora reported seeing two figures in white coveralls near the object before it departed with a roar and blue flame.
On the map
34.06° N, 106.89° W, plotted at the town or city
Show on the map