Policeman Lonnie Zamora observed the landing of a white craft, resting on four legs, in a depression four kilometers outside Socorro. Near it were standing two figures, below average height, dressed in white coveralls. Getting within 30 meters of the object, he saw a red insignia on its aluminum-like surface. It rose to four meters with a strong roar, became silent, hovered and flew away. Imprints of the landing gear and scorching were left behind. Total duration of the sighting was one to five minutes (Lonnie Zamora). A roaring sound was heard.

Hynek summarized his investigation:

At about 5:45 P.M., Zamora was engaged in tracking a speeding motorist south of the town. He allowed the motorist to escape when his attention was drawn to a descending craft that was emitting a flame. At the same time he heard explosive sounds from the direction of the craft. While still some distance away, he was able to see the landed craft, which appeared like an up-ended automobile, and he noted the presence of two white-cloaked figures in its immediate vicinity.

He then lost sight of the object because of the hilly terrain and did not see it again until he rounded a curve and attained a higher elevation. To his astonishment he found himself looking down into a shallow gully at an egg-shaped metallic craft resting on legs extended from the craft. He was then less than 150 feet from the object, close enough to see a strange insignia on the side of the craft. Loud sounds from the interior of me craft caused Zamora to seek shelter as rapidly as he could.

Glancing back over his shoulder at the craft, he saw it rise vertically and take off horizontally, disappearing shortly thereafter in the direction of "Six Mile Canyon.'

Zamora had already radioed his report in to headquarters, and Sergeant Chavez was on his way. Had he not taken a wrong turn, the sergeant would have arrived in time to see the craft itself. As it was, he arrived to find a very shaken Zamora.

"What's the matter, Lonnie? You look like you've seen the devil," Chavez said.

"Maybe I have," replied Zamora.

My original investigations, directed toward breaking apart Zamora's account by seeking mutual contradictions in it and also by seeking to establish Zamora as an unreliable witness, were fruitless. I was impressed by the high regard in which Zamora was held by his colleagues, and I personally am willing today to accept his testimony as genuine, particularly since it does fit a global pattern.

I visited the site several days later and verified the landing marks and the charred plants. Chavez had, he told me in a long interview, verified the marks and the burned greasewood plants, which had still been smoldering at the time he first met Zamora at the site.

Measurements taken at the site showed that the diagonals of die quadrilateral formed by the four landing marks intersected almost exactly at right angles. One theorem in geometry states that if the diagonals of a quadrilateral intersect at right angles, the midpoints of the sides of the quadrilateral lie on die circumference of a circle, and it is thus of considerable interest that the center of the circle so formed virtually coincided with the principal burn mark on the ground. Under certain conditions the center of gravity of the craft would have been directly over the center of the circle, hence making the presence of the burn mark more significant.

On successive visits I continued my investigations into Zamora's credibility and traced the story of an unidentified witness who had stopped for gas just north of town. While at the gas station, he told of his encounter just south of town with a strange flying craft that was apparently in trouble and heading for a landing. He said that it must have been in trouble because he saw a squad car (Zamora's) going out across the sandy terrain toward it. He was unable to identify the craft as any normal aircraft.

I tried my best at the time to induce the air force to make an intelligence problem of finding the missing witness, but they evinced no interest whatsoever.

Google map of this location.