Copyright 2017, Jose Antonia Caravaca
For the realization of the UFO Socorro prank,
a minimum of 5 to 6 students had to participate.
The driver of the vehicle (1) who would serve
as a decoy to lead the unsuspecting policeman to the place of teasing.
A watchman (2) who was to warn
(walkie-talkie?) of the arrival of the protagonist on the stage of the mockery
where the two "actors" (3-4) armed with their insulating monkeys were
waiting.
And those in charge (5-6) of special effects,
burning bushes, igniting explosives, making noises, etc., if we consider that
the two "little humanoids" in their disguise would not be very
operative.
Were all these people able to go unnoticed in
view of Zamora and his companions?
Remember that the witness was more or less 5
meters high from where the action took place, being able to observe perfectly
the whole environment from a high perspective. Where did they hide?
Despite the short distance between him and the
artifact, the policeman did not perceive anything suspicious, such as people or
props?
Didn't anyone in the village see them move the
"technical team" to the desert? Where did they inflate the 6-meter
balloon?
And we went back to the most disconcerting
detail: did those involved decide to keep the secret of their brilliant company
and in more than 40 years no filter anything, not between friends or relatives?
No one wanted to assume the authorship of a
master "work" that has been the object of books, countless articles
and dozens of documentaries?
Another substantial detail, to demonstrate the
strangeness of the Socorro incident, is offered by two pairs of small circular
traces appearing inside the rhombus that formed the supposed footprints left by
the four legs of the device.
These marks according to all the specialists
had to be produced by the ladder that the two humanoids used for their descent
to land. The existence of four marks would be due to an adjustment, after a
first contact, for the correct fastening, carried out mechanically or manually.
But the footprints offer more information.
The ufologist W. T. Powers, who analyzed the
layout of the four landing gear markings, discovered that they were arranged at
a perfect right angle, and that even the largest spacing of the axle of one of
them coincided with where the scale marks and small footprints of the humanoid
assumptions were found. This meant that the aircraft had intelligently arranged
the landing gear so that the occupants could comfortably descend through a larger
area.
In 1966, the ufologist wrote in the
prestigious Flying Saucer Review, "The centre of gravity of the supposed
vehicle was directly above the burning area. Powers calculated that at
least one ton of weight had to be exerted for each support to produce marks:
“This is a resounding rebuttal of a possible deception, or else it would have
to be admitted that it was not only a very clever prankster, but also
extraordinarily strong" Powers
concluded in his detailed report on the case.
It is strange to think that jokers, no matter
how high their academic training, took time to perfectly position the landing
gear of the balloon, calculate its center of gravity, and much more to go where
there should be more space for the hypothetical crewmen to descend.
The analysis of the footprints shows that it
was not a fixed landing scheme, as in the case of space modules, for example,
but rather an intelligent system that adapted to the environment where it had
to land: calculating distances and orienting perfectly to achieve the perfect
balance inside the object regardless of the abruptness of the outside.
If we examine in detail Zamora's story and the
possible student prank, we find more errors of bulk.
If we assume that it was some kind of floating
balloon or gadget, at least 6 meters long by 3 meters wide, someone had to
attach a device, such as a flare or "explosive," to simulate the
lower "escape" the police saw.
This would put the flammable internal gas of
the balloon at serious risk of reaction due to the heat generated by the flare,
since as it was a rotating exhaust, sometimes the flame would be dangerously
close to the external structure of the aerostat.
Zamora himself felt, despite the distance, the
heat coming from the "exhaust", which would indicate the high
temperature of that jet, temperatures not suitable for a balloon, at least
filled with any flammable gas.
In addition, when the object rose about 6
meters from the ground, it stopped for several seconds, beginning a parallel
flight with the ground, a few meters from the surface, in complete silence.
At a kilometre and a half flight (1´5 km) the
artifact rises at a very steep angle upwards. What kind of balloon did the
students create that was able to travel in silence, in perfect horizontal flight
and soar after completing a good distance? How did you get the balance of the
balloon? What propulsion system did they use since Zamora only
distinguished the flare at the bottom?
It has to be said that the most difficult
thing to control precisely in the horizontal flight of a balloon is the
stability, and more so while operating a few meters from the ground, which
could have caused its crash or its erratic displacement, never rectilinear. In
addition, the students' balloon retracted the landing gear before taking off.
Clearly, the mysterious object possessed two
distinct types of propulsion source; a noisy "jet gyroscope" (perhaps
due to a malfunction not solved by Zamora's arrival, which indicated that the
ascent of the device was slow and clumsy) for landings, takeoffs, and land
approach and an unknown, more advanced, quieter and more efficient system for
moving at a high speed through the sky.
The staging of the students' performance would
have had to plan minute details, including the metal doors heard by Zamora that
compared them to those produced by the gates of an armored vehicle. The
specialists agree in pointing out that both blows correspond to the closing of
the entry of the aircraft that was made in two parts.
About the alleged humanoids, there is one
aspect Bragalia has not considered.
Zamora estimated their height by comparing
them to a bush next to them, this one averaging 1´57 meters. Therefore, the
supposed crewmen had to measure between 1´30 and 1´40 meters, this means that
if they had been small students; they would have to be at least dwarfs.
It should also be considered that the visual
perspective of people bent or kneeling to simulate short stature would offer
Zamora an inaccurate proportion between height and width, making it clear that
humanoids were either big headed or had excessively long arms.
In a commentary made to his readers, Bragalia
specifies that the high insulating boots used by students could give, in the
distance, the impression of being small people, a fact that does not fit at all
with the height of the shrub that serves as a reference.
Bragalia's hypothesis neither contemplates nor
explains the observations made by other witnesses that afternoon. Relief gas
station clerk Mr. Opal Grinder told reporters that a family of Colorado
tourists had told him about the great scare they took when an oval-shaped
object had passed so close to the roof of their car, a 1955 Cadillac, that they
thought it was going to crash into them. This incident occurred moments before,
and in the same direction as Lonnie Zamora's encounter.
Curiously, despite Dr. Hynek's specific
request, the USAF ignored a search for these additional witnesses who could
provide clarity to the sighting.
But there are more observers. Ray Stanford
wrote that "Paul Kies and Larry Kratzer reported observing the landing of
the ovoid object Zamora saw. (...) also saw a flame beneath the apparatus,
which descended less than a kilometre and a half northeast of the car in which
they were traveling on their way to Socorro.” Nor did the authorities inquire
into these testimonies. This is a mystery...
JAC
