Post by Morgan Sierra on May 10, 2011 19:04:03 GMT -6
The Lubbock Lights
Lubbock is a sleepy little city located right in the middle of the Texas panhandle. Surrounded on all sides by miles and miles of flat dusty farmland there is not a lot up there for people to see or do. In fact, aside from Buddy Holly and Texas Tech university, there has never been much in the area for folks to get excited about.
That all changed for a brief period of time in the early 1950s when strange lights started flashing through the dark Texas skies. This phenomenon eventually proved to be one of the best UFO sightings of all time...one that was witnessed by hundreds of people, captured on film, and investigated thoroughly by several agencies, including the United States Air Force. Still, no official explanation was ever given for what came to be known as The Lubbock Lights.
It all started on the evening of August 25, 1951. A group of professors from what was then Texas Technological College were holding an informal backyard meeting at the house of Dr. W. T. Robinson, the Professor of Geology at Tech. The group also included Dr. A. G. Oberg, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Dr. George, Professor of Physics, and Professor W. L. Ducker, head of the Petroleum Engineering Department. At approximately 9:20 PM they were drinking tea and discussing micro-meteorites when they were suddenly startled by a group of bright lights that flashed through the sky overhead. Unable to identify what they had seen and chiding themselves for not being more observant they sat hoping the lights would return. About an hour later they were not disappointed.
The lights appeared to be fast moving objects that emitted a soft bluish-green glow. There seemed to be between fifteen to thirty of them arranged in a crescent or U-shaped pattern like a string of beads. It was impossible to determine the size or height of the objects because of the speed of their movement but the estimated altitude ranged from one mile to 50,000 feet. It took only a few seconds for the lights to flash across the sky suggesting a speed of up to 18,000 miles per hour!
Still unable to determine the identity of the objects, and curious as college professors are, the group set out to find an explanation.
Ducker phoned the story in to the local newspaper, the Lubbock Evening Avalanche, hoping that a printed account would solicit some public response that could shed some light on the subject. Within days other reports began to filter in. a group of women reported seeing the same lights that the professors saw but they had no idea what they were. Neither did Carl Henninger, the Tech professor of German, who was also a witness.
On August 28, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hoenig were at the drive-in theater when they saw several spots of light flying overhead, traveling very fast and at a high altitude.
J. Russel Heitman, head of the Texas Tech journalism department, admitted to seeing the lights several days earlier. Other reports came in, all describing the same general characteristics. There were usually between ten and thirty objects, sometimes in a crescent or V-shaped pattern, all moving at an extremely high speed in a north to south direction. The objects gave off a soft glow,slightly brighter than a star, either bluish-green or yellow in color. All of the witnesses agreed that the speed matched that of celestial phenomena such as meteorites but that they appeared to be of terrestrial origin.
People began to speculate as to what the objects could be. Some claimed that the lights were from passing aircraft but the Civil Aeronautics Administration was contacted and they reported that there were no jet planes or other flights in the area at the time of the sightings. Others offered such suggestions as shooting stars, spotlight reflections or even high-flying moths. A West Texas rancher claimed to have solved the mystery when he heard one of the lights make a sound like a plover, a bird which is common to that area. While the objects did seem to resemble a flock of geese or other fowl in formation, they still appeared to be moving much too fast to be birds.
On August 31 the mystery was compounded further when a couple of ladies reported getting an up-close look at one of the UFOs. They described it as an "aluminum-colored, pear-shaped object" which hovered near the ground along the highway just north of Lubbock. It appeared to be smooth except for one porthole or door. The craft was drifting slowly against the wind, then passed over their car and proceeded to speed up and rise rapidly out of sight. Both of the women were familiar with aircraft but neither could recognize what they had seen. They were certain, however, that it was not a bird.
The most spectacular evidence in the case was gathered that same evening. Carl Hart, an amateur photographer, was lying in bed staring out the window. He was searching for the lights. Having listened to the reports all week he had his camera ready and was hoping to get a picture. At 8:40 PM the lights streaked by his window and Hart went into action. Forgetting about a recent knee operation that had put him on crutches he grabbed his 35mm Kodak camera and rushed out into the yard. When the lights reappeared he was able to snap two photographs. A few minutes later he clicked off three more. The photos showed eighteen lighted objects in a V-shaped pattern. In one picture the objects were in a double row and in the next they had shifted to a single line. Hart said he was conscious of the moment the shift occurred.
The photographs were offered to the newspaper which initially turned them down because they suspected a hoax, but after a thorough examination proved their authenticity they were published.
Meanwhile, the professors were busy with their own investigation. Having recruited a few volunteers they formed two teams outside of the city. Using radio communication equipment and scientific measuring devices they were hoping to get an accurate reading on the height, size and speed of the objects. Unfortunately, while the lights continued to appear to witnesses in town they were never visible to the teams in the field. This led to the conclusion that whatever the lights were they were reflecting the glow of lights from the city.
Over the next few weeks the reports continued to pour in from dozens of witnesses yet nobody could provide a satisfactory explanation for what they were seeing. Finally in late September the military was called in.
Captain Edward Ruppelt who was head of the Air Force's Project Grudge, which investigated reports of Unidentified Flying Objects, arrived to try to solve the mystery. The first thing he did was to set up a meeting with the four professors who confirmed the details of their story. He then went to talk to the photographer, Hart, and they reenacted the events which had occurred on the 31st. Ruppelt then borrowed the negatives of the film to have them analyzed. Next he interviewed all of the other witnesses in the area and talked to dozens of people with dozens of stories.
He talked to the old rancher who had formed the "plover" theory and then checked with the game warden's office in Lubbock where he got plenty of information on plover but no conclusive verification. While the warden reported that the oily-white breast of a plover could reflect light very easily, he also claimed that the birds only flew in groups of two or three at the most, never twenty to thirty.
Captain Ruppelt also contacted the ladies who had reported the strange object hovering near their car, and various other people who had reported UFOs in the area. While he heard many strange stories he was still very much in the dark as to the origin of the strange lights.
One of the more interesting stories he heard was from a retired rancher who mentioned that his wife had seen the lights on the same night as the professors' first sighting. Her story added a few details however. She claimed that the lights were attached to the trailing edge of the wing of a giant V-shaped aircraft that glided silently over the house. This information was important because it matched the description of a similar sighting which had occurred in Albuquerque, New Mexico, just moments before. In fact, the details were almost identical.
On the evening of August 25 an employee of the Atomic Energy Commission's Sandia Corporation and his wife had spotted a huge aircraft passing swiftly and silently over their house. The craft was in the shape of a "flying wing" with it's wings swept back sharply like a V. On the aft edge of the wings there were twelve to sixteen softly glowing bluish-colored lights. They also noticed several dark bands running across the wing from front to back. The estimated altitude was from 800 to 1000 feet so they had gotten a very good look at it. The man's credentials were impeccable and he had a very high military security clearance so his testimony was considered irrefutable. He saw what he saw and it happened only twenty minutes before the Lubbock professors had their sighting.
From Albuquerque to Lubbock is a distance of close to 300 miles. If the two flying wing reports were from the same object this would indicate a speed of roughly 900 miles per hour.
Ruppelt also had a report from a radar station in Washington state which, later that same night, picked up an unidentified target traveling on a northwesterly heading at a speed of approximately 900 miles per hour. This was an interesting coincidence since the unknown object was heading in a direction away from the Lubbock area, but there was no proof that it was the same object.
Over the next few weeks the Air Force continued with their investigation. They analyzed several hundred reports of the Lubbock Lights, including twelve from the Tech professors. They also subjected the photos and negatives to an intensive series of tests, one of which suggested that the images on the film could have been caused by an object using infrared light or an extremely high heat source. Beyond that, little else could be learned. Ruppelt's official conclusion was that "the photos were never proven to be a hoax but neither were they proven to be genuine." This basically summed up the Air Force's entire investigation of the lights themselves.
Hundreds of people witnessed them, several at very close range, photographs were taken and radar contact was made yet no solid conclusion was ever reached. This was the result of the Texas Tech professor's investigation as well. While most people agreed that what they saw was fantastic, they all felt that it was of an earthly origin, although nobody could agree on exactly what that origin might be.
"Frankly, we were astonished," said Professor Ducker. "And if I had not had confirming witnesses at the time, I feel sure I should have said nothing about what I saw, for it is incredible to believe they are of terrestrial origin and even more incredible to believe they are from beyond the Earth."
It seems that hundreds of West Texans and the United States military would agree.
What exactly were the strange lights that appeared in the West Texas skies in 1951? Birds, planes or something of extraterrestrial origin? Over the years perhaps more has been written about this incident than any other UFO sighting in history, but despite all of the investigations and inferences no satisfactory explanation has ever presented itself.
After more than six decades, the solution to the Lubbock Lights is still unknown.
Lubbock is a sleepy little city located right in the middle of the Texas panhandle. Surrounded on all sides by miles and miles of flat dusty farmland there is not a lot up there for people to see or do. In fact, aside from Buddy Holly and Texas Tech university, there has never been much in the area for folks to get excited about.
That all changed for a brief period of time in the early 1950s when strange lights started flashing through the dark Texas skies. This phenomenon eventually proved to be one of the best UFO sightings of all time...one that was witnessed by hundreds of people, captured on film, and investigated thoroughly by several agencies, including the United States Air Force. Still, no official explanation was ever given for what came to be known as The Lubbock Lights.
It all started on the evening of August 25, 1951. A group of professors from what was then Texas Technological College were holding an informal backyard meeting at the house of Dr. W. T. Robinson, the Professor of Geology at Tech. The group also included Dr. A. G. Oberg, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Dr. George, Professor of Physics, and Professor W. L. Ducker, head of the Petroleum Engineering Department. At approximately 9:20 PM they were drinking tea and discussing micro-meteorites when they were suddenly startled by a group of bright lights that flashed through the sky overhead. Unable to identify what they had seen and chiding themselves for not being more observant they sat hoping the lights would return. About an hour later they were not disappointed.
The lights appeared to be fast moving objects that emitted a soft bluish-green glow. There seemed to be between fifteen to thirty of them arranged in a crescent or U-shaped pattern like a string of beads. It was impossible to determine the size or height of the objects because of the speed of their movement but the estimated altitude ranged from one mile to 50,000 feet. It took only a few seconds for the lights to flash across the sky suggesting a speed of up to 18,000 miles per hour!
Still unable to determine the identity of the objects, and curious as college professors are, the group set out to find an explanation.
Ducker phoned the story in to the local newspaper, the Lubbock Evening Avalanche, hoping that a printed account would solicit some public response that could shed some light on the subject. Within days other reports began to filter in. a group of women reported seeing the same lights that the professors saw but they had no idea what they were. Neither did Carl Henninger, the Tech professor of German, who was also a witness.
On August 28, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hoenig were at the drive-in theater when they saw several spots of light flying overhead, traveling very fast and at a high altitude.
J. Russel Heitman, head of the Texas Tech journalism department, admitted to seeing the lights several days earlier. Other reports came in, all describing the same general characteristics. There were usually between ten and thirty objects, sometimes in a crescent or V-shaped pattern, all moving at an extremely high speed in a north to south direction. The objects gave off a soft glow,slightly brighter than a star, either bluish-green or yellow in color. All of the witnesses agreed that the speed matched that of celestial phenomena such as meteorites but that they appeared to be of terrestrial origin.
People began to speculate as to what the objects could be. Some claimed that the lights were from passing aircraft but the Civil Aeronautics Administration was contacted and they reported that there were no jet planes or other flights in the area at the time of the sightings. Others offered such suggestions as shooting stars, spotlight reflections or even high-flying moths. A West Texas rancher claimed to have solved the mystery when he heard one of the lights make a sound like a plover, a bird which is common to that area. While the objects did seem to resemble a flock of geese or other fowl in formation, they still appeared to be moving much too fast to be birds.
On August 31 the mystery was compounded further when a couple of ladies reported getting an up-close look at one of the UFOs. They described it as an "aluminum-colored, pear-shaped object" which hovered near the ground along the highway just north of Lubbock. It appeared to be smooth except for one porthole or door. The craft was drifting slowly against the wind, then passed over their car and proceeded to speed up and rise rapidly out of sight. Both of the women were familiar with aircraft but neither could recognize what they had seen. They were certain, however, that it was not a bird.
The most spectacular evidence in the case was gathered that same evening. Carl Hart, an amateur photographer, was lying in bed staring out the window. He was searching for the lights. Having listened to the reports all week he had his camera ready and was hoping to get a picture. At 8:40 PM the lights streaked by his window and Hart went into action. Forgetting about a recent knee operation that had put him on crutches he grabbed his 35mm Kodak camera and rushed out into the yard. When the lights reappeared he was able to snap two photographs. A few minutes later he clicked off three more. The photos showed eighteen lighted objects in a V-shaped pattern. In one picture the objects were in a double row and in the next they had shifted to a single line. Hart said he was conscious of the moment the shift occurred.
The photographs were offered to the newspaper which initially turned them down because they suspected a hoax, but after a thorough examination proved their authenticity they were published.
Meanwhile, the professors were busy with their own investigation. Having recruited a few volunteers they formed two teams outside of the city. Using radio communication equipment and scientific measuring devices they were hoping to get an accurate reading on the height, size and speed of the objects. Unfortunately, while the lights continued to appear to witnesses in town they were never visible to the teams in the field. This led to the conclusion that whatever the lights were they were reflecting the glow of lights from the city.
Over the next few weeks the reports continued to pour in from dozens of witnesses yet nobody could provide a satisfactory explanation for what they were seeing. Finally in late September the military was called in.
Captain Edward Ruppelt who was head of the Air Force's Project Grudge, which investigated reports of Unidentified Flying Objects, arrived to try to solve the mystery. The first thing he did was to set up a meeting with the four professors who confirmed the details of their story. He then went to talk to the photographer, Hart, and they reenacted the events which had occurred on the 31st. Ruppelt then borrowed the negatives of the film to have them analyzed. Next he interviewed all of the other witnesses in the area and talked to dozens of people with dozens of stories.
He talked to the old rancher who had formed the "plover" theory and then checked with the game warden's office in Lubbock where he got plenty of information on plover but no conclusive verification. While the warden reported that the oily-white breast of a plover could reflect light very easily, he also claimed that the birds only flew in groups of two or three at the most, never twenty to thirty.
Captain Ruppelt also contacted the ladies who had reported the strange object hovering near their car, and various other people who had reported UFOs in the area. While he heard many strange stories he was still very much in the dark as to the origin of the strange lights.
One of the more interesting stories he heard was from a retired rancher who mentioned that his wife had seen the lights on the same night as the professors' first sighting. Her story added a few details however. She claimed that the lights were attached to the trailing edge of the wing of a giant V-shaped aircraft that glided silently over the house. This information was important because it matched the description of a similar sighting which had occurred in Albuquerque, New Mexico, just moments before. In fact, the details were almost identical.
On the evening of August 25 an employee of the Atomic Energy Commission's Sandia Corporation and his wife had spotted a huge aircraft passing swiftly and silently over their house. The craft was in the shape of a "flying wing" with it's wings swept back sharply like a V. On the aft edge of the wings there were twelve to sixteen softly glowing bluish-colored lights. They also noticed several dark bands running across the wing from front to back. The estimated altitude was from 800 to 1000 feet so they had gotten a very good look at it. The man's credentials were impeccable and he had a very high military security clearance so his testimony was considered irrefutable. He saw what he saw and it happened only twenty minutes before the Lubbock professors had their sighting.
From Albuquerque to Lubbock is a distance of close to 300 miles. If the two flying wing reports were from the same object this would indicate a speed of roughly 900 miles per hour.
Ruppelt also had a report from a radar station in Washington state which, later that same night, picked up an unidentified target traveling on a northwesterly heading at a speed of approximately 900 miles per hour. This was an interesting coincidence since the unknown object was heading in a direction away from the Lubbock area, but there was no proof that it was the same object.
Over the next few weeks the Air Force continued with their investigation. They analyzed several hundred reports of the Lubbock Lights, including twelve from the Tech professors. They also subjected the photos and negatives to an intensive series of tests, one of which suggested that the images on the film could have been caused by an object using infrared light or an extremely high heat source. Beyond that, little else could be learned. Ruppelt's official conclusion was that "the photos were never proven to be a hoax but neither were they proven to be genuine." This basically summed up the Air Force's entire investigation of the lights themselves.
Hundreds of people witnessed them, several at very close range, photographs were taken and radar contact was made yet no solid conclusion was ever reached. This was the result of the Texas Tech professor's investigation as well. While most people agreed that what they saw was fantastic, they all felt that it was of an earthly origin, although nobody could agree on exactly what that origin might be.
"Frankly, we were astonished," said Professor Ducker. "And if I had not had confirming witnesses at the time, I feel sure I should have said nothing about what I saw, for it is incredible to believe they are of terrestrial origin and even more incredible to believe they are from beyond the Earth."
It seems that hundreds of West Texans and the United States military would agree.
What exactly were the strange lights that appeared in the West Texas skies in 1951? Birds, planes or something of extraterrestrial origin? Over the years perhaps more has been written about this incident than any other UFO sighting in history, but despite all of the investigations and inferences no satisfactory explanation has ever presented itself.
After more than six decades, the solution to the Lubbock Lights is still unknown.