Green Fireballs in the Sky: The Mysterious 1948 Incident

UFO incidents often take forms that are weirder and stranger than those before, making it hard to pinpoint their origins. Sometimes, accounts can be ludicrous. Among these reports one can find reports that don’t seem to fit into any specific category. These ones are considered an obscure oddity. This obscure oddity could best be tracked back to December 5, 1948, when a USAF C-47 transport plane crew was on their way from Lowry Air Force Base, Colorado, to Williams Air Force Base in Chandler, Arizona.

What Happened?

The crew observed an eerie green light illuminating the sky to the west of Las Vegas, followed shortly after by another. At approximately the same time, another plane also reported a pale green light with a pale green trail, and that the light was coming at them so fast that they had to use evasive maneuvers to avoid colliding with it. As soon as the crew saw the object, they thought it might be a meteorite; however, because the object was too low to the ground and not moving fast enough, they dismissed it as being a meteorite.

Paint a soft ball with fluorescent paint so that it glows a bright green in the dark. Have someone throw the ball from about 100 feet away straight at your face, as hard as he can. A green fireball looks like that.

What Were They?

Interestingly, it was generally assumed that this was a meteorite, but when Dr. Lincoln LaPaz of the University of New Mexico’s Institute of Meteoritics traveled to the location that would have been hit if it were an ordinary meteor, he found no trace of any meteorite, and concluded it must have fallen farther away.

It was the evening of December 8, 1948 when those of the crew on-board the Beech T-7 flying between Kirkland Air Force Base and Las Vegas reported seeing the unworldly sight of a bright green light, who was accelerating rapidly towards the craft with a horizontal, straight-line trajectory.

Dr. LaPaz once again set out to investigate, learning that there were many other reported sightings of these green balls of light around military and other sensitive sites, like the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Sandia weapons laboratories. But why? And where did they come from?

These sightings left behind an intriguing mystery because most of them were made by trained observers such as pilots, military personnel, etc. Despite this, LaPaz found no evidence to indicate meteorites, and, moreover, no rocket or flare tests occurred at the times and locations of the sightings.

At this point, he began to doubt the theory that the objects were meteorites, given the direction of their trajectories, as well as their green coloration which, he points out, meteorites never have.

“The balls are Kelly green, but meteors are red, yellow, blue, or white. Kelly green may be the result of copper concentration in large amounts, but it’s also found in atomic fuel from manufactured, human made material. These balls are silent and so, although people have seen these balls, not one person heard them make any noise. Plus, the green balls always disappear and so no fragments are ever found from these, maybe a result of a controlled flight path.”

Sightings of green, horizontal fires continued for the following month, with the head of La Paz reporting one on December 12th and attributing it to an object which had passed directly over Los Alamos lab and due to peculiar flight characteristics. He had also learned that it had been witnessed by several other people. There was a particularly marvelous observation: On December 20, a patrol noticed several bright green lights coming at a 45 degree angle and quickly leveling off to fly out of sight in a horizontal line. Along with this incredible sighting, there was mention of a trail, or wake, similar to that of a rocket. They only make this even more unusual is the when these sightings were reported, the military was quick to keep it under wraps. This included halting the press release of the incident. pressure from other agencies also investigating this occurrence.

There has been official denial as to these sightings and it’s unknown why. Sightings continued until 1949, where there were more reports during January. One significant account happened on January 30, 1949, when a brightly glowing green fireball was observed over New Mexico by over one hundred witnesses, including trained military personnel, oil workers, aircrew, and control tower personnel. Sightings came in right up until the following year, when pilots A. Harvey and Merrick C. Marshall spotted a green fireball as they approached Albuquerque.

The Dec. 18, 1950 edition of the Albuquerque Journal would say of the encounter:

The two reported that the light first appeared in the northeast, and continued on to move toward the town of Las Alamos, in the direction of Las Vegas. They watched for about ten minutes before the light disappeared from view. That night a green fireball-looking object encircled Los Alamos, which changed colors to a very bright white, then continued in the direction of Albuquerque and slowed to below 700 miles an hour. The green light was first observed at 11:25 pm and was no longer in sight at 11:35. Both of the pilots said that there could not possibly be another plane involved.

Following these occurrences, the sightings of the green fireballs abruptly ended. Theories have been given on what could have caused the phenomenon from 1948 to 1950 in the southwestern United States. It was proposed by LaPaz that a meteor was to blame, and this theory largely settled the scientific community; LaPaz never found any evidence that meteorites caused the explosion. The explosion was also compared to ball lightning. In any case, other possibilities to explain them are top-secret aircraft and rocket tests, fallout-debris clouds linked to atomic bomb testing, or Soviet spy technology.

What is for sure is that the origins of these strange things can be explained through UFOs or even probes dropped from much larger spacecraft from another planet. What could have caused so many people in a wide geographic region to report experiencing green fireballs all at the same time? Could it have been meteorological phenomena or perhaps visitors from another world? We did not know then, and we do not know now. It will forever be a mystery.