Farmington NM 1950 UFO Event w/ Picture

Just thought I'd post up a case which has been covered on ATS before but that some folks may not have heard about. Apparently in March 1950 a formation of UFOs was witnessed and observed by various people over 3 consecutive days above the skies of Farmington, New Mexico. The story was covered by various newspapers a few days after the event and a picture was taken showing what appears to be a formation of flying saucers.



Additionally, if anyone is interested in the Keyhoe book referenced in the above video, you can read it for free from here, it's definitely worth it.

Personally, what I find most interesting about this event is the fact the saucers were flying in a "V" formation, could this indicate terrestrial craft? Or merely imitation? Either way, it's a very interesting bunch of events and as mentioned, was covered in various newspapers of the time.

Thanks for bringing it to our attention OP. The reported story seems to indicate something was going on, the picture is something else though, all light and shadows in different places.
The V formation is interesting, kind of drag sharing, but that would require the picture to be real and perhaps more something Earth based. A bit of a conundrum all told.

reply to post by Zcustosmorum


Obviously V formations are most beneficial for flying efficiency. But military helicopters also fly V formations during seek and destroy type missions.

Perhaps, if they were legit UFOs, they were searching for something?

reply to post by Zcustosmorum


This is an interesting case but I do wonder how much the wind and the fact it was St. Patrick's Day had to do with it , although UFOs were said to have been reported over three days .

I've found a report of the incident from the Farmington Daily Times, March 18, 1950 transcribed by ufo evidence that may be of interest .

Fully half of this town's population still is certain today that it saw space ships or some strange aircraft -- hundreds of them zooming through the skies yesterday. Estimates of the number ranged from & quotes several to more that 500. Whatever they were, they caused a major sensation in this community, which lies only 110 air miles northwest of the huge Los Alamos Atomic installation.

The objects appeared to play tag high in the air. At times they streaked away at almost unbelievable speeds. One witness did a triangulation sighting on one of the objects and estimated its speed at about 1,000 miles an hour, and estimated its size as approximately twice that of a B-29

Could it have been cotton blowing in the wind ?

Thatcher emphatically denied an earlier report that the objects could have been small pieces of cotton fuzz floating in the atmosphere. "It was not cotton," he said, "I saw several pieces of cotton fuzz floating around in the air at the time, but I was not sighting on any cotton."

The "cotton" report was started by State Patrolman Andy Andrews, who quoted several Farmington Residents as asserting it was cotton they saw. The residents denied Andrew's report. The first reports of flying saucers were noted a few minutes before 11 a.m. yesterday. For a full hour thereafter people deluged the Times with reports of the objects.
Full report

JayinAR
reply to post by Zcustosmorum

 

Obviously V formations are most beneficial for flying efficiency. But military helicopters also fly V formations during seek and destroy type missions.

Perhaps, if they were legit UFOs, they were searching for something?

No need to be searching. That formation is efficient. Birds even use it quite often.

reply to post by gortex


Thanx for the input Gort, I'm always open to alternative theories and that certainly is one, however wouldn't the residents (or at least some of them) have experienced it before? Assuming they had then I'm sure they would know the difference.

I'm pretty sure every UFO sighting/event known in history has at least one plausible theory from an honest person, I also guess they have at least one deliberately misleading theory from those who wish to batten down the hatches on genuine UFO cases.

roadgravel

JayinAR
reply to post by Zcustosmorum

 

Obviously V formations are most beneficial for flying efficiency. But military helicopters also fly V formations during seek and destroy type missions.

Perhaps, if they were legit UFOs, they were searching for something?

No need to be searching. That formation is efficient. Birds even use it quite often.

Yes, I said exactly as much.
However, legit UFOs show signs of anti-gravity propulsion. Meaning they don't need to "draft" in formation for efficiency.

Only other reason I could see legit UFOs flying in a V would be if they were searching for something.

Why does a V indicate searching. Maybe a line might work. You mention technology, they might not even need more than one ship to detect the target.

Edit:

gravity and air friction differ

reply to post by Zcustosmorum


I had close relatives living there at the time.

They have always asserted it was real . . . including one's boss telling him not to talk about it after the owner, IIRC was visited by an 'official.'

BO XIAN
reply to post by Zcustosmorum

 

I had close relatives living there at the time.

They have always asserted it was real . . . including one's boss telling him not to talk about it after the owner, IIRC was visited by an 'official.'

Any more "insider" details?

JayinAR
reply to post by Zcustosmorum

 

Obviously V formations are most beneficial for flying efficiency. But military helicopters also fly V formations during seek and destroy type missions.

Perhaps, if they were legit UFOs, they were searching for something?

The one that crashed in Roswell?

reply to post by Zcustosmorum


Not much, really.

People in the downtown area were gawking at the fly-overs . . . IIRC, the newspaper had one or more stories on it but then the editor reportedly refused to discuss it and it was squelched as much as possible by officials. Don't know what brand of officials. Folks were very patriotic and submissive toward officials in those days.

One of my relatives talked with the son of the newspaper owner . . . he didn't really have a lot to add.

Some speculated that it may have been some kind of test. That may have been the conjecture regardless of whether it was seen as secret government craft of outer space craft.

There were evidently a LOT of craft flying about in broad daylight, clearly visible.

I don't recall how high . . . IIRC, they said several hundred feet up not thousands of feet.

About all I can dredge up.

Sorry.

Probably the better UFO sites have better info.

reply to post by Zcustosmorum


This is such an awesome thread. Now imagine if we had video and not black and white?

It is so clear why this was labeled so sensitive and always destroyed before it got out - we were being invaded and they didn't want the visual evidence out - just because it was so crazy.

When you have multiple aircraft flying there are several formations that would/could be used for collision avoidance. A finger 4 or "V" type is used so you only have to worry about the aircraft you are flying formation off of. The leader navigates and all other's follow in their respective positions... We are not talking airshow tight but a loose cross country formation is easy to do and very safe.