Documents / Official release
This Federal Bureau of Investigation report from Albuquerque, New Mexico, dated May 8, 1964, deals with an unidentified flying object at Socorro, New Mexico, on April 24, 1964. Special Agent D. Arthur Byrnes, Jr. describes visiting the site and finding four depressions, burned grass and circular marks in the ground. The report also records Officer Lonnie Zamora's account of a roar and a flame, a shiny object standing on legs with two people in white coveralls beside it, and the object's departure. The document states that it contains no recommendations or conclusions.
From the source:Release of 2026-05-08 Incident: N/A, N/A. The FBI's 62-HQ-83894 case file includes investigative records, eyewitness testimonies, and public reports concerning Unidentified Flying Objects and flying discs documented between June 1947 and July 1968. The records include high-profile incident accounts, photographic evidence from sites like Oak Ridge, TN, and technical proposals regarding potential propulsion systems. Additional topics include convention programs, researcher accounts, and extensive media coverage from the period. This file is partially posted on FBI vault with more redactions and some pages missing. Included here is the complete case file with several newly declassified pages and only minor redactions.
“Socorro, New Mexico”9 pages
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT Lonnie alone. At this time heard a roar and saw a flame in the sky to the southwest some distance away--possibly a half mile or a mile. Came to mind that a dynamite shack in that area had blown up. Decided to abandon the chase, and to check on the flame. The flame was bluish and sort of orange too. Could not tell size of flame. Sort of motionless flame, slowly descending. Was still driving the police car and could not pay too much attention to the flame. It was a narrow type of flame. It was like a "stream down"--a funnel type--narrower at top than at bottom. Flame possibly three degrees or so in width--not wide. The flame was possibly a mile south of Socorro, in isolated area. The flame about twice as wide at bottom as top, and about four times as high as top was wide. Did not notice any object at top, did not note if top of flame was level. Sun was to west and did not help vision. Had green sun glasses over prescription glasses. Could not see bottom of flame because it was behind the hill. No smoke noted. Noted some "commotion" at bottomdust? Possibly from windy day--wind was blowing hard. Clear sunny sky otherwise--just a few clouds scattered over area.
Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 40 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.