Cash-Landrum incident revisited

Blue Blurry Lines is one my absolute favorite UFO blogs.

Recently, they took a look back at the Cash-Landrum incident. I was immediately interested as I've always found the incident to be one of Ufology's better cases, one I remember hearing about from young, eager, tyro days of UFO interest.

The case involves Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum, and Landrum's grandson, Colby. All three were in a car traveling near Huffman, Texas on the night of December 29th, 1980. There in the sky they witnessed a fiery, diamond-shaped craft. Flames shot from the bottom of the object. Surrounding this UFO were 23 military helicopters, later identified as twin-rotor Chinooks. The travelers pulled their car to the side of the road and got out to watch. Colby grew most agitated at the sight of the UFO and demanded they get back in the car and leave. Vickie went back into the car with her grandson while Betty remained outside and watched the UFO and the helicopters pass over them.

Later, all three witnesses developed medical ailments. Vickie and Colby had "sunburn" inflamations on their skin and eyes. Betty had the worst of it, contracting nausea, hair loss, burns on her neck and scalp, and eventually breast cancer that resulted in a mastectomy. Medical specialists were called in and a few believed that Cash actually had radiation sickness. During the course of treatment, Cash and the others eventually confessed what they had witnessed. All queries to the military were met with outright denials. In 1986, Landrum and Cash sued the United States government for $20 million in damages. The court dismissed the case on the grounds that no such craft exists in the U.S. inventory.

Other witnesses of the UFO have come forward in the ensuing years. The problem is that it is all well after the fact. There aren't any (that I know of, mind you) corroborating reports of the UFO made in the days after December 29th.

That doesn't mean that something didn't happen. In fact, the medical evidence alone suggests these people saw something. What that "something" is remains unknown, thus making it a UFO. In Above Top Secret, Timothy Good reports rumors that what Cash and Landrum witnessed was an example of Project Snowbird...an alleged clandestine project to test fly recovered alien spacecraft. More likely is that the three witnesses did stumble upon a military test flight, but of an aircraft of terrestrial...even if exotic...origins. I say "exotic" because the illnesses contracted by the witnesses do indeed suggest exposure to radiation. The aircraft may have been nuclear powered and the description of it venting flames suggests that it might have developed trouble. Cash, Landrum, and Landrum were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And all three suffered because of it, Cash worst of all. The case remains unsolved. Blue Blurry Lines asks anyone who might have information about the sighting to contact them at the blog. It is especially hoped that someone from the military might at last step forward. After all, the presence of 23 of the military's largest helicopters would suggest that a great number of personnel were involved. Someone who was serving at the time and willing to talk would go a long way towards helping.

Cash and Landrum and their families deserve justice. Or failing that, they at least deserve to know what actually happened.


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