[meteorite-list] NPA 06-24-1950; Oscar Monnig chases meteor, plane or flying saucer

From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Aug 18 12:09:03 2004
Message-ID: <BAY4-F3EFDFWTWH0kjE00007786_at_hotmail.com>

Paper: Herald Press
City: Saint Joseph, Michigan
Date: June 24, 1950


BALL OF FIRE LIGHTS UP SKY

Mysterious Flash Seen Over Wide Area Startles Thousands

(By Associated Press)

     A ball of fire flashed across the southern sky as the sun sank last
night, trailing a streamer of flame and startling thousands.
     Or did it? Was it just a speeding plane with the sun's last red and
gold rays playing tricks with its vapor trail? Was it a real ball of fire,
a meteor? Or was it - could it have been - a flying saucer?
     What direction did it travel? Take your choice: East to west or south
to east.
     And where did it land? If it was a jet plane, at El Paso, Texas; if a
meteor; perhaps in the swamps of Louisiana.
     Or maybe there was a meteor as well as a jet.
     Here are the known facts: A brilliant light, variously described as a
fire ball and a fiery streak was seen from, was seen from Montgomery, Ala.,
to Fort Worth, Tex., at about 7:40 p.m. (CST). A ship 350 miles at sea from
Galvaston, Tex., saw it. A similar flash was seen an hour earlier at
Natchez, Miss., and about 20 minutes later at Abilene, Tex. During this
period a jet plane was whizzing over the south on a course from Landley
Field, Va., to El Paso.
     Nevertheless, a Fort Worth amateur astronomers - who didn't see the
flash but painstakingly tried to trace it - said he would be "almost willing
to stake my reputation that it wasn't a jet plane sighted tonight."
     Astronomer Oscar Monnig said he made telephone checks of the fire
ball's trajectory at Monroe and Lake Charles, La., and at Houston, Tex. All
of these, he said, indicated that the phenomenon was traveling southeast.
Most reports said it was moving west.
      "The meteor was the sort that leaves a sustained dust trail usually
visible for a radius of 300 to 500 miles," Monnig said. He figured the
appearance of the fiery streak was caused by the sun's reflection on the
dust.
     Because of Lake Charles radioman sighted the object directly overhead,
Monnig assumed the meteor "fell somewhere in the swampy coastal country
south of Lake Charles."

(end)

Mark note: “Meteorites A to Z” does not show a meteorite having fallen in
the United States at this time.

www.meteoritearticles.com
Received on Wed 18 Aug 2004 12:09:00 PM PDT