Why Do Electronics Fail Near UFOs?

Term: Vehicle interference case: a UFO report in which a car, truck, or aircraft loses power or instruments while an object is nearby.

Term: Ball lightning: a rare, poorly understood glowing sphere sometimes reported during thunderstorms.

Term: St. Elmo’s fire: a glow that forms on pointed objects during strong electrical fields in stormy weather.

Why Do Electronics Fail Near UFOs?

In many UFO reports, engines, headlights, radios, and instruments fail while an object is close and work again when it leaves. The best-known cases are Levelland, Texas, in 1957 and Tehran in 1976. Official investigators blamed storms and, in Tehran, a bright planet and faulty equipment. Critics say those explanations do not fit every detail, and no cause has been proven.

Levelland, Texas, 1957

On the night of November 2 to 3, 1957, the police in Levelland, Texas, took about 15 phone calls from people on roads across the county. In the first call, at about 11 p.m., Pedro Saucedo and his companion Joe Salaz said a torpedo-shaped, glowing object passed over their truck. Saucedo said the truck’s headlights went out and the engine died.

At least seven separate reports said that a vehicle’s engine and lights failed as a glowing object approached and worked again when it left. Levelland’s fire marshal reported that his own car’s lights dimmed and his engine sputtered as a streak of light passed. The sheriff also reported seeing a light.

The official explanation

Project Blue Book attributed the Levelland reports to ball lightning or St. Elmo’s fire, given stormy weather earlier in the region. Critics say the sky was clear during the reports and that ball lightning does not explain a series of stalled engines across many miles. A statement attributed to astronomer J. Allen Hynek says he hastily agreed with the ball lightning evaluation while he was busy tracking Sputnik, and that he was not proud of it.

Tehran, 1976

On September 19, 1976, two Iranian F-4 fighters were sent to investigate a bright object over Tehran. The crew of the first jet reported that instruments and communications failed as it approached and came back when the pilot turned away. The second crew reported a radar return and a temporary loss of weapons controls and communications when the pilot tried to fire a missile. Skeptic Philip Klass argued that the crews chased the planet Jupiter and that one jet had a history of electrical faults.

An older parallel

Some Christian researchers compare these reports to older accounts of haunting and possession, in which lights go out and machines fail. In the Smurl haunting in Pennsylvania in the 1980s, the family reported that appliances turned on and off by themselves, televisions changed channels, and lights flickered and failed. Those reports come from the family and from Ed and Lorraine Warren, and neutral parties did not verify them. I offer the comparison as a pattern to consider, and not as proof.

What is solid and what is not

Many witnesses reported the same kind of failure in different years and places. That is documented. The cause of the failures is not established. In Levelland, the record shows calls and statements, and in Tehran it shows a U.S. intelligence report, but no measurement of the object. Electronic failure is one of the nine effects in my book Disclosure: They Are Not Extraterrestrials. Disclosure is available on Amazon. You can find more of my work at ckqbooks.com.

Sources

Wikipedia, Levelland UFO case. Project Blue Book case file, Levelland, Texas, November 1957 (National Archives). UFO Evidence, Levelland case files. Wikipedia, 1976 Tehran UFO incident. Philip J. Klass, UFOs: The Public Deceived (1983).