Talk:Levelland UFO Case

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[edit] Not ball lightning

I have removed the claim that the USAF said ball lightning was the cause of the odd reports at Levelland. It makes good reading for UFO conspiracists - but it isn't true. The USAF's Air Technical Intelligence Center said conditions at Levelland at the time were consistent with those associated with ball lighting (storms often are) and that what one witness described was ball lightning. But, ATIC concluded: “It is the opinion of ATIC that ball lightning may have contributed to the overall circumstances of the Levelland sighting, but was not a major factor. It is concluded that the major cause for the Levelland case was a severe electrical storm". That's from The Levelland Sightings Of 1957 by Antonio F. Rullán: Air Force/Blue Book Investigation and Explanation [1], (which is a reference link given at the bottom of the article). It is unethical for Wikipedia to attribute a false claim to the USAF followed by a Hynek quote which is presented as a rebuttal of the claim the USAF never made. Wikipedia demands more principled standards than that. Moriori 07:54, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] It Was Ball Lightning

It isn't just "UFO Conspiracists" who have pointed out that the Air Force used ball lightning as an explanation for the Levelland incident. Prominent UFO Skeptic Donald Menzel, in his 1963 book The World Of Flying Saucers, notes that "After studying the weather reports and the descriptions given by the various witnesses, the Air Force issued an explanation...stating that the phenomenon observed at Levelland had been ball lightning or St. Elmo's fire." Curtis Peebles, an aviation journalist and another prominent UFO critic, writes in his 1994 book Watch The Skies: A Chronicle Of The Flying Saucer Myth that "In view of the stormy weather conditions...an electrical phenomenon such as Saint Elmo's Fire or ball lightning seemed to be the most probable cause." In his online article, Antonio Rullan also noted that "In the memo [Dr.] Hynek says that a connection between the ball lightning phenomenon and the engine stoppage was possible via ionization of the air and moisture disposition." Rullan adds that later in his life Hynek would regret giving this explanation because "he could not explain why the auto engines would start right after the ball of light left the scene." One wonders why Hynek would criticize the Air Force explanation for using the ball lightning hypothesis if that wasn't their primary conclusion for the incident - especially since he helped provide part of the hypothesis! Additionally, in spite of ATIC's dismissal of ball lightning as a major cause of the incident, Capt. George T. Gregory, the head of Project Blue Book, did conclude in 1958 that "all the weather conditions were conducive to a ball lightning manifestation." Capt. Gregory also went on to use Dr. Hynek's explanation that ball lightning or lightning discharges were capable of stalling the vehicles involved in the Levelland incident. Capt. Gregory was the head of Blue Book and thus was the Air Force's official spokesman on UFO matters. Given that he concluded that ball lightning was responsible for the incident, and that nearly all accounts of the Levelland case - both pro-and-con - refer to ball lightning or Saint Elmo's Fire as the Air Force explanation for the incident, it is more than historically accurate to refer to the Air Force's explanation as ball lightning.