Sergeant Sam Chavez arrived at the scene, just in time to see the UFO depart towards southeast, flying in a straight line. Following these events, the two policemen walked to the spot where the object had landed and collected evidence from what it remained.

After a few hours, state police and the FBI arrived at the reported scene.

Zamora was questioned by US Army Captain Richard T. Holder, Up-Range Commander of the White Sands Missile Range, and by the Special FBI Agent D. Arthur Byrnes Jr. from the Albuquerque office. Zamora declared that:

Noise was a roar, not a blast. Not like a jet. Changed from high frequency to low frequency and then stopped. Roar lasted possibly 10 seconds was going towards it at that time on the rough gravel road… At same time as roar, I saw flame.

Socorro_Incident

Police investigating the Socorro landing site

Flame was under the object. Object was starting to go straight up slowly up… Flame was light blue and at bottom was sort of orange color… Thought, from roar, it might blow up…”

A couple of days after the event, Dr. J. Allen Hynek came to investigate the report for the Air Force’s Project Blue Book. He questioned Zamora and also measured and photographed the landing site. It contained holes in the ground, possibly made by the landing gear, as well as several small footprints. The marks left by the landing legs formed a quadrilateral whose diagonals met at exactly 90 degree angles.

Because the case received large press coverage, the Air Force was put under pressure and had to offer an explanation to the public. They claimed that a rancher’s helicopter or maybe an experimental NASA lunar lander did this.

Zamora was known as a well-respected and reliable policeman, with no personal or professional bad habits. He remembered and described in detail this strange occurrence to all who were interested.

SocorroGroundMark

The landing gear left impressions in the desert sand

Ultimately, Project Blue Book declared the report “unsolved” and included the following in their report:

There is no doubt that Loonie Zamora saw on object which left quite an impression on him. There is also no question about Zamora’s reliability. He is a serious police officer, a pillar of his church, and a man well versed in recognizing airborne vehicles in his area.

He is puzzled by what he saw, and frankly, so are we. This is the best-documented case on record, and still we have been unable, in spite od thorough investigation, to find the vehicle or other stimulus that scared Zamora to the point of panic.”

This case remains unsolved and thanks to the pressure the media put at that time, the government did not manage to cover it up entirely. Even though the enthusiasm regarding this ET meeting died long ago, the information still remains for us to draw knowledge.