Project Blue Book Socorro file (direct PDF)

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

But waiving all that aside, the things that would seem to militate against a hoax are the fact that no tracks coming to or going from the region were found, minutes after the sighting occurred; paraphernalia was not located, again within minutes; Chaves and the FHI agent would have to have been in on the hoax; and finally, the object took off crosswind. Paraphernalia I refer to would have been ropes, launching equipment, gas tanks, etc. which would have been difficult to dispose of in a few minutes and certainly without making any tracks. You say "the whole thing could have easily been planned to come off as it did." I think otherwise; it would have been quite difficult to have a thing like this come off, even as to the original timing. Zamora did not have a regular patrol route so his approximate whereabouts would not be known at a given time. I questioned Chaves on this, and Zamora patrols the whole town in an unscheduled fashion. By the way, there is no local UFO club. The fake UFO would have had to have been rather sizable since it looked to Zamora like an overturned car, upended, first off from a considerable distance.

You suggest that when Zamora's car created the hill, the hoaxers triggered another blast of flame and released the UFO, and ran like hell. The terrain is such that when a car creates the hill, it suddenly comes upon the site. There simply would not have been time to wait until this happened to release the UFO and then hide; not unless there were elaborate ropes and wires running over some distance on the ground. As long as Zamora wears his glasses, his eyesight is good, and you must remember that he did not lose the glasses until after he saw the flame and thought the object was about to explode.

Your suggestion that we re-exact the event is more difficult than you think. I have not yet discovered how to make a balloon go off crosswind or to wait to release it and cause an explosion until someone was just one hundred feet away from me, and then disappear and hide "instantaneously." If the purported balloon release had been by means of delay mechanism, with the hornsters having had time to hide, then the release mechanism or some parts of it would have been left behind as tell tale evidence.

Zamora is having his troubles; the boys be picks up are rather direct. Zamora stopped a teenage speeder, and the kid fired back at Zamora, "What are you giving me a ticket for? - Don't you know a flying saucer might come down on you any minute?" You may say that this strengthens the hour hypothesis, but on the other hand it is a perfectly natural remark for kids to make to a man hold up to ridicule for having "seen things."

I con'back also to the trenchart fact that Zamora was a thoroughly scared person. Chaves has remarked this to me a number of times that never in his long association with Zamora has he seen him in anything at all approaching the state he was in when Chaves joined him. I honestly don't think a small gas-filled balloon carrying a cardboard spaceship could have frightened a gruff, practical type like Zamora who is used to accidents, bloodshed, fights, and even murders. We all seem to agree that Zamora say something that really and truly frightened him.