Not sure if any of you have seen this or not but its an article concerning Lonnie Zamora, the New Mexico policeman who claimed to have seen a UFO. Its one of the more believable theories out there concerning what he saw, in my opinion.

http://www.nmsr.org/socorro.htm

Very good find, crystaldawn. That does seem by far the most plausible explananation I've ever heard.

But one obvious problem. A helicopter is a helicopter. They resemble and function like each other and nothing else. I've certainly never mistaken a helicopter for a balloon or a UFO, and Zamora according to the UM depiction was very close after he drove up to the area.

I think Zamora is still alive and I'd love to hear his reaction to this theory.

One aspect that does lend credence to that story is the unidentified tourist and supposedly his specific use of the term helicopter. It would be interesting to see that newspaper report from 1964 and read exactly what the tourist said.

If that were a common test, and for such a vital piece of equipment like the lunar surveyor, you wonder why there weren't many more sightings like this one? And why the government didn't come forward with this potential explanation decades ago? I mean, the lunar surveyor wasn't exactly an unknown item, or something we continued to use to spy on the Russians during the Cold War. It was resting on the moon, for crying out loud.

The Zamora case in my view is the most persuasive i have encountered in terms of the existance of ET's.....I agree CD, that this is one of the more credible atempts to explain it (Klass's debunking is atleast as IN-credible as those who would have us believe that little green men are arriving from the planet Zog on a daily basis) but i'm not quite convinced by it!

One other thing. Certainly they videoed that helicopter toting the lunar surveyor. Most likely a tape still exists although they may not want to release it for nonsense reasons.

If the tape were shown it would be simple to decide if it looked bizarre enough to be mistaken for a UFO, and Zamora could look at it for any resemblance to what he saw.

I have read of Aliens for 20+ years and I have to wonder why sometimes people black out their experiences (ala The Hills) and other times the witness' get close. The man burned by the UFO while prospecting, The Texas UFO burned woman and Travis Walton for example

I live in New Mexico and I think Lonnie is still alive. Every few years a news channel or newspaper will do an article on Lonnie but I haven't heard anything new about Lonnie. My brother went to New Mexico Tech in the mid 90's and there were always Project Blue Book rumors floating around the college and school and there were people in town that believed the thing was a prank on Lonnie. Lonnie has pretty much stuck to his story over the years despite other theories. I do remember Lonnie's story being featured on a cable channel documentary.

http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2009/11/zamora-dies.html

Damn.

I hadn't heard anything about Lonnie's death until I came to this thread. He seemed like a good person.
http://www.dchieftain.com/dc/index.php/news/463-zamora-remembered-for-love-of-family-amdash-and-his-faith.html

I also found this link about theory that the incident was a prank
http://www.ufodigest.com/news/1109/pranksters.php