In a nutshell, Menzel proposed the “explanation” for the Farmington “saucer armada” as fragments of a ruptured high-altitude U.S. Navy Skyhook balloon. According to Menzel, a Skyhook balloon was launched from Holloman AFB on the morning of Friday, March 17th which eventually drifted over Farmington and ascended into the upper atmosphere where it eventually ruptured. This created a shower of balloon fragments that glistened in the sky and blew in the air. These were erroneously identified as “flying saucers” by townspeople who just happened to witness this spectacle on St. Patrick’s Day! I think you can gather the subtext of this statement, viz., drunk eyewitnesses. This was the source of the Farmington UFO sightings in March 1950. It sounds like a plausible explanation on the face of it. However, the balloon fragment explanation flies in the face of simple facts.
First, this only explains sightings over Farmington on Friday, March 17th (the second day). What about the previous day of sightings that are documented as well as the day after? One of which, the day before on March 16th, we have the Air Force’s own documentation to support it occurred. Were the citizens of Farmington drinking a day earlier in order to rush in the St. Patrick’s Day holiday?
Second, as thoroughly researched by Dr. James McDonald years later, there appeared to be no documented Skyhook balloon launches around this timeframe. In fact, a man by the name of Henry Dembowski who reviewed the Office of Naval Research (ONR) files for that time period for McDonald concluded as noted in McDonald’s own notes: “No Skyhook flights anywhere in country on 3/17 or 3/18 (1950). Nearest flight in time was released from Minnesota and terminated over Michigan.” Clearly then, a Skyhook balloon cannot be entertained as a plausible explanation in this case.
We must also pause to reflect on what else was going on at the time beyond just Farmington and other parts of New Mexico. In my review of this case and related historical newspaper accounts, I was amazed at the volume of UFO sightings that were occurring prior to, during, and after the incident. In fact, as you will see, a wave of UFO sightings was gripping the southwest portion of the United States as well as Mexico. Most of these were mass-eyewitness occurrences involving, again, multiple UFOs seen in broad daylight. Again, they are too numerous to discuss them all here, but we will review a few.
The United States certainly had no monopoly on flying saucers in March 1950 or for that matter prior to that time. But between the southwest portion of the United States and Mexico, the following cities had overflights of “saucers”: Farmington, Eunice, Las Vegas, Tucumcari, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Los Alamos (all in New Mexico), Durango and Pikes Peak (in Colorado), Abilene, Dallas, and Brownsville (in Texas) in addition to Monterrey and Mexico City in Mexico. These are just some of the reported areas of activity to note.
As early as March 8th, 1950, reports were coming in from Mexico of flying saucer sightings. The El Paso Herald Post ran a story that day titled “Two More Flying Discs Sighted Over Mexico.” It recounted two flying saucer reports – one from Durango and one from Guadalajara. Of note in the article it states “It was the third time within a week that the strange objects were reported.”
Mexico City had its share of flying saucers on Monday, March 13th according to the March 14th, 1950 edition of the San Mateo Times (California). The article starts by stating “Trained aircraft observers and meteorologists confirmed reports today of hundreds of persons who said they saw four ‘flying saucers’ yesterday over this city and one at Monterrey, 350 miles north.”
Coincidentally, on that same date, a flying saucer sighting occurred back in New Mexico in the southeast corner of the State. A couple reportedly witnessed a red flying disc described as “a solid red revolving circle” at 10:00pm according to the Santa Fe New Mexican dated March 14th. The silent, low-flying object moved slowly over the town of Eunice heading east before quickly turning to the north and accelerating at a blistering speed until it disappeared. Was this the “red leader” that Farmington and Tucumcari residents would see and report later that same week? Regardless, it demonstrates that UFOs were being seen on the same dates in both Mexico and the United States.
Another example of this is Thursday, March 16th (remember, this was the first day of UFO activity over Farmington that week which included Marlo Webb’s sighting). Mexico City again was seeing UFOs. But this time, they were filming them! The San Antonio Express dated March 17th recounted the report of a solitary saucer that hovered over the city. The article stated “Hundreds of persons saw a saucer hover at high altitude over the Central Airport at noon before whizzing out of sight at high speed.” The article continues by stating that 16mm film footage was shot of the object, but that nothing would be known until the film was developed. To my knowledge, no follow up on this was ever recorded in the papers. The last portion of the article added “It was the third time in four days that ‘saucers’ had been sighted over Mexico City.”
No surprise, after this incident played out in Mexico, a potentially life-threatening episode occurred over Dallas, Texas on Friday, March 17th (the big day in Farmington) involving a “flying disc” as reported in the March 18th edition of the Lubbock Morning Avalanche. What today we would call a “near-miss” (some would more accurately call it a “near-hit”) incident was witnessed by a Chief Petty Officer at the Dallas Naval Air Station: