Status: Explained — the Air Force and skeptics attributed the reports to ball lightning or a severe electrical storm. Many UFO researchers consider it a strong multi-witness case.
Credit: U.S. Air Force, Project Blue Book (1957), via Internet Archive · Licence: Public domain (per Wikimedia Commons) · Source
Levelland sits on the flat Texas South Plains west of Lubbock. On the evening of November 2, 1957, two farm workers called the police to say a rocket-shaped object had passed over their truck near Levelland, and the engine died until it left. An officer on the night desk assumed it was a joke.
An hour later, motorist Jim Wheeler reported a brilliantly lit, egg-shaped object sitting in the road east of town, and his car stalled. Over the next few hours, more drivers on roads around the town said they saw a bright object, and that their engines, headlights or radios failed and then recovered after it moved away. A Texas Tech student, Newell Wright, was among them, and the sheriff's office also looked into the reports.
The reports came in the weeks after the first Sputnik launch, and they drew national attention. The Air Force's Project Blue Book investigated and concluded that the cause was ball lightning or a severe electrical storm, noting that there was stormy weather in the area. UFO researchers have long pointed to the number of independent witnesses in a short period as what makes Levelland unusual, while critics note that some of the details are not well documented.
Sources: Wikipedia: Levelland UFO case
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