The Cash-Landrum Incident: Was a Nuclear Aircraft Involved?

Of all the best-known and often reviewed UFO cases of the last few decades, many would contend that one of the most puzzling had been the Cash-Landrum incident, which occurred near Dayton, Texas on 29 December, 1980.

The story, well known in UFO circles, involved two women: Betty Cash and Vicky Landrum, as well as Vicky’s grandson Colby, all of whom purportedly observed an unusual, very bright source of illumination over a country road on the night in question. After seemingly hovering above the highway for several minutes, the strange object was surrounded by a group of helicopters in tight formation, and removed from the area, according to the witnesses.

Among those seeking to understand the incident, and what the evidence (little though we have) actually entails, researcher Curt Collins has examined the witness testimony in-depth, covering everything from the later developments and health problems reported by the witnesses, to the earliest statements they gave about the object’s shape and appearance, depicted in the image at the outset of this article (the image is an original work produced by Christian P. Lambright, X Desk Publishing, copyright 2013, as featured in Curt Collins’ original article at his site Blue Blurry Lines, which can be viewed here. Also, Curt’s article details a number of other renderings of the object, and I recommend folks visit his site for further background on this case).

Over the years, some have presented this case as one of the best UFO reports of the modern era, rife with details and credible testimony that points strongly toward a physical object seen on the night in question. On the skeptical side of things, it has been argued that this case is yet another crude hoax, and that perhaps the witnesses had gone to great lengths to create the appearance of poor health following the encounter, with hopes of obtaining money in recompense from the U.S. Air Force or some other agency. 

Much like Collins has worked to try and do, looking at the case very carefully, I feel that there may still be things we can surmise about this incident, even decades after it occurred, as I recently outlined in an article on the subject. Following its publication online, one reader wrote to me addressing the long-held theory that the object or craft may have been utilizing an experimental propulsion system, perhaps one involving a nuclear engine:

“I’m a bit surprised you didn’t go into NEPA (Nuclear Engine Propulsion Aircraft) at all Micah. Especially when considering the witnesses suffered from radiation exposure combined with their reports of a rocket type exhaust. As I recall, they reported the craft appeared to be having difficulties, which would help to explain the Chinooks.”

Stanton Friedman – nuclear physicist

As a rather interesting aside, a number of years ago I had actually considered what my reader proposes, which had prompted me to ask researcher Stanton Friedman about his feelings regarding this particular case. As a nuclear physicist who had worked on various projects that explored whether a nuclear engine propulsion craft might be feasible for air or space travel, it had been Friedman’s view that no such manmade technology would likely have existed at the time of the Cash-Landrum incident (that was his opinion, at least). Hence, Friedman felt that the object, whatever it was, “hadn’t been one of ours”, if the object had indeed exhibited any kind of a nuclear power source.

One of the first problems with the NEPA argument is actually an obvious one: despite the long-held assertions about radiation poisoning, there was never any real evidence that nuclear radiation had been found at the site (and further, it should be noted that the precise location of the observation could not be found either). Betty Cash’s vehicle similarly failed to display any convincing evidence of nuclear radiation, despite the likelihood that the vehicle had been the same distance from whatever source might have caused the witnesses to become ill afterward. This was confirmed by researcher John Schuessler, who had examined Cash’s vehicle with a geiger counter during his investigation of the incident. 

Betty Cash (right)

While the witnesses certainly displayed symptoms similar to radiation sickness, it had been the problems with finding evidence of nuclear radiation on the vehicle that led researcher Brad Sparks to consider whether the health problems had been the result of something else; he suggested a chemical component, perhaps an aerosol, that may have been present in the environment instead.

However, I find that the ailments that the witnesses described (especially Betty Cash) were also consistent with health problems associated with exposure to a high dose of some variety of ionizing (or perhaps non-ionizing) radiation; since the object was described as extremely bright, infrared or ultraviolet might be possibilities here. Thus, the effects described might somewhat resemble conditions like sun poisoning, resulting in photochemical damage that seems more plausible than chemical reactions or nuclear radiation… especially since no convincing evidence for either of these had been found.

In my original article on the subject, I also presented information on a specific patent for an infra-heat emitter, designed for purpose of the quick inflation of balloons, and perhaps allowing infrared detection for military applications (night training missions, etc). The patent predates the Cash-Landrum incident by several years, and if we were to consider some similar device had been behind the illumination the witnesses observed, it might also account for a source of radiation–perhaps in the infrared or ultraviolet portions of the spectrum–where photochemical effects (i.e. damage to the skin, etc) certainly can occur.

Finally, we should note that a fairly high-energy ionizing source of radiation would have been able to cause effects such as damage to the skin, without resulting in radioactivity being induced in objects nearby. This seems consistent with the lack of radiation noted by Schuessler during his investigation.

In conclusion, perhaps some of the problems we face in understanding what really happened on the night of December 29, 1980 have more to do with inaccuracies and assumptions that are often made about the case, rather than hard facts. In order to make a proper assessment of the events related by Betty Cash and the Landrums, a careful review of the facts is paramount; and even after more than three decades, it may also help us come to new, better-informed conclusions about the case and its implications.

 TAGS: Cash-Landrum incident, Texas, ufo

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

What Ever Happened to the “Flying Saucer” Shaped UFOs?

Beginning in early 1951, Edward J. Ruppelt, a young, witty, and overall promising US Air Force officer, began his service as chief of the USAF’s famous Project Blue Book. Housed within the Air Technical Intelligence Center, Ruppelt and a handful of staff would begin fielding the most credible reports of aerial phenomena which, at the time, were considered a legitimate potential threat to national security: these were, of course, the famous “flying saucers” that had been reported since the summer of 1947.

“UFO,” Ruppelt would later affirm, “is the official term that I created to replace the words ‘flying saucers’.” The reason for this had been rather obvious: in the foreword written by Drunvalo Melchizedek, it was noted that there a handful of “types” of UFO that the USAF documented during the Blue Book years under Ruppelt’s oversight; these were the, Triangular craft, Cigars, Balls of Light, Balls of Flame, and of course, the famous “Flying Saucer”. “The Air Force’s conclusion,” Melchizedek notes, “after about four years of dramatic study was that this phenomenon was not the work of the Russians, not the United States — not anyone from this planet.”

Whether or not the non-terrestrial nature of the alleged craft can indeed be affirmed, it is clear that there had been far more occurring throughout the 1950s—and throughout the decades that would follow, just as well—than most conventional surveys of aviation history would indicate. In equal measure, it can hardly be argued that a number of the sorts of “saucers” and other UFOs that were being reported as humankind coasted along into the Atomic Age were, in fact, of terrestrial origin. Just within the last few years, the release of previously classified documents pertaining to aircraft test flights like the Oxcart program, the CIA’s codename for its project for development of the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft, have shed new light on strange “saucers” seen at high altitudes above the American Southwest… saucers which, obvious though it seems to us today, bore more resemblance then to the advanced jet aircraft most of us are used to seeing today.

But that’s not to say that there haven’t been some legitimate reports of UFOs that aren’t so easily ID’d in retrospect, particularly those bearing the now-famous “saucer” shape. Consider the following account, once again sourced from Ruppelt’s own book on the subject:

“Just before noon on March 16, Chief Petty Officer Charles Lewis saw a disk shaped UFO come streaking across the sky and buzz a high flying B-36. Lewis first saw the UFO coming in from the north, lower than the B-36; then he saw it pull up to the big bomber as it got closer. It hovered under the B-36 for an instant, then it went speeding off and disappeared. When the press inquired about the incident, Captain M. A. Nation, commander of the air station, vouched for his chief and added that the base tower operators had seen and reported a UFO to him about ten days before.”

Similar non-air force reports have yielded fruit on occasion in the years that would follow. In my own personal research into UFOs over the last several years, a number of witnesses have described such seemingly-impossible aircraft to me; witnesses that I have come to know quite well in many instances, and whose judgement and credibility have earned my sincerest confidence.

One such report was related to me in the summer of 2013 by an individual named “Betty”. Having formerly worked as a statistician in various branches of the U.S. government throughout the 1980s and 90s, Betty confided to me that she had never been particularly interested in UFOs, and considered herself to be a “skeptic”. This, however, hadn’t caused her to dismiss her own observation of a classic, saucer-shaped aircraft in the early 1970s.

As Betty describes:

I must have been about 12, my brother Billy (11 months older) was there as well.  We lived in Venice, California at the time, about a mile from the beach.  Anyway, one night, Billy and I were outside playing around.  Suddenly we stopped at a loud engine sound and looked up to see the Goodyear Blimp flying low about a block away, heading west.  We were able to clearly see the advertisement on the side of the blimp.  Later, we stopped again to see the Goodyear Blimp slowly flying by to the east.  Every child in Los Angeles knows the Goodyear Blimp.

Billy and I had resumed our playing when suddenly I heard a vibrating sound coming from the right corner of the house.  I looked up and hovering close to the house was some sort of craft.  Because it was so close to the house I could only see about a 3rd of it’s size (an estimation).  I saw the lights that appeared to go around the craft.  I remember red and white lights, too much time has gone by to remember for sure if there were other colors as well.  As I focused in on the rest of the exposed craft, I could see what appeared to be a “classic” flying saucer of the 1960s.  There were no apparent lights on the upper portion of the craft, it was grayed in its own lighting and from my house and street lamps.  I glanced at Billy who was staring with his mouth open. I looked back at the craft and saw it slightly tilt downward toward us.  I was so excited!   Just then my brother yelled “go get mom!”  I ran inside the living room and yelled at my mother “There’s a UFO!” as she stared at me from the dining room with my oldest brother.  I pivoted there and ran back outside.  By the time I returned to my spot, my mom and older brother were already there. 

“Where’d it go!”  I demanded from Billy.  Looking like he was shaken, he said that as soon as I turned to go into the house, the UFO shot out of there in a flash.  It was extremely fast and shot out toward the Venice Pier.  I looked out that way but could only see small orbs of light, much like airplanes from the airport (there are no stars in Los Angeles). 

Billy and I were scoffed at and we were left to ponder over what we saw.

The next day my mother told me that in the paper, there were reports of an unusual light seen out over the Venice pier.”

Betty’s encounter is like many that have crossed my desk over the years, supplied by clear-minded, sober individuals that, if anything, have maintained very little interest in the UFO subject. And yet, in such instances, the famed, if not archetypal “flying saucer” shape has remained, though perhaps not prevalently.

It is indeed funny, in retrospect, the way that so many things that once scared us become relegated to the lunatic fringe; like the drive-in horror movies from decades ago that scared the daylights out of us which, today, we laugh at, and point at the dangling bits of wiggling rubber that make up the monstrosities that once caused us to cower.

Maybe the UFOs are no different, in a sense: the only thing that could have actually been as scary as bug-eyed aliens in saucers from someplace else would have been the once-inevitable conclusion that the USAF had thought they might eventually determine: that the “saucers” had been something of our own making, and belonging to the boys across the pond, who were now waving the bigger stick. That ended up not being the case, of course… but if not Russian, then whose were they? 

Even today, the odd disc shaped aircraft are still reported. They appear only sparingly–almost as if just to assert themselves from time to time–or maybe to be taken as some archaic reminder of the kind of weirdness that UFOs “used to be”. Or at least, a reminder of how things were back in the good ol’ days, when the flying saucer craze that swept the nation in the earliest years of the Cold War was still something new, refreshing, enticing, and yes, even scary.

 TAGS: flying saucer, Project Bluebook, ufo

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Mulder, Scully, Fact & Fiction, Pt.3

The opening paragraph of part-1 of this three-part article began with the following: “Now that the new series of The X-Files is already halfway through its brief return to television, I figured it would be a good time to address an issue that often crops up in conversation. And particularly when I’m lecturing on the “government files” angle of the UFO controversy. Namely, does the real FBI have its very own X-Files department? Well, the short answer is ‘No. It does not.’ That’s not to say, however, that the FBI hasn’t played a significant role in the investigation of the kinds of mysteries that would have Mulder drooling at the mouth and Scully rolling her eyes and shaking her head.”

So far, we’ve addressed the FBI’s files on UFOs in 1947, an alleged UFO crash in 1948, and the Contactee/”Space Brother” controversy that began in the early 1950s. Now, it’s time to move on. Covering the period from 1957 to 1960, we have the FBI’s files on Extra-Sensory Perception, ESP. Of this very interesting document collection, the FBI says: “ESP is considered a perception of information about events beyond what may be discerned through the five physical senses or deduced from past experience or knowledge. This release consists of cross references to ESP found in FBI files from 1957 to 1960. Several of the documents concern William Foos, a proponent of ESP. Others concern claims that ESP could be used in espionage investigations. The FBI found no scientific support for this or other claims and did not pursue the matters raised in these references.”

Predating the more well-known “Remote Viewing” programs of the early 1970s onward, the ESP file shows how, for a while, officialdom got quite excited by the idea of potentially employing psychic 007’s to spy on the likes of the Reds.

Without doubt, the weirdest mystery that the FBI found itself involved in during the 1970s was that concerning so-called “cattle mutilations.” The FBI’s file is titled “Animal Mutilation.” The FBI says of this particular dossier: “In the mid-1970s, reports of scattered animal mutilations in western and mid-western states concerned many people. The FBI was asked to investigate, but was unable to do so because of a lack of jurisdiction (except when such mutilations were found on Indian lands). These files consist mainly of press clippings and correspondence concerning the issues between 1974 and 1978.”

Indeed, it’s the correspondence that is particularly notable. The file is filled with New Mexico State Police reports of case after case of very odd – even macabre – cattle mutilations. Many of the incidents occurred in and around the New Mexico town of Dulce – a place with a notorious tie to Ufology. The files tell of animals found dead with their legs broken, as if they had been dropped from significant heights. There are reports of black helicopters skulking around. Aliens, secret bio-warfare operations, satanic cults, and predators all come under the scrutiny of law enforcement officials. To call the reports real-life X-Files would not be wide of the mark. It would be right on it. Now, let’s head on to the 1980s.

It’s time to turn our attentions to Jack the Ripper. What on Earth does the world’s most infamous serial-killer have to do with the Bureau? The answer comes from the FBI: “In 1888, a series of unsolved homicides in London, England were attributed to a serial killer called ‘Jack the Ripper.’ In 1988, Supervisory Special Agent John Douglas of the FBI’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime performed an analysis of the case for the Cosgrove-Meurer Production Company. This release consists of his analysis.”

Also in 1988, the FBI found itself embroiled in the controversy surrounding the notorious “MJ12 documents.” “Leaked” to certain figures within the UFO research community a handful of years earlier, the supposedly Top Secret documents tell of a UFO crash at Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947, and of a highly-classified group tasked with overseeing the matter: Majestic 12. Or, MJ12. Of this file, the FBI tells us: “In 1988, two FBI offices received similar versions of a memo titled ‘Operation Majestic-12…’claiming to be highly classified government document. The memo appeared to be a briefing for newly-elected President Eisenhower on a secret committee created to exploit a recovery of an extra-terrestrial aircraft and cover-up this work from public examination. An Air Force investigation determined the document to be a fake.”

Indeed, a meeting occurred in Washington, D.C. on November 30, 1988 between agents of the FBI and agents of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, in which the FBI was told that the MJ12 documents were a “fabricated hoax.”

And there we have it: probably the closest thing to the fictional X-Files of a certain TV show now making a comeback. You may be interested to know I could have made this article a 4- or even 5-part one, such is the extent of the “weird files” held by the FBI. Those I didn’t touch on include files on sci-fi author Philip K. Dick; Spontaneous Human Combustion; Nicola Tesla; Wilhelm “Orgone” Reich; and rocket-pioneer and Aleister Crowley disciple, Jack Parsons. And, indeed, there may be others, still awaiting declassification.

 TAGS: FBI, Mulder, Scully, The X-Files, ufo

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }