Albuquerque, New MexicoMarch 1951

On March 6, 1951, at approximately 2:30 p.m., four personnel from Los Alamos and two pilots from Kirtland Air Force Base observed a very bright object crossing the sky near Albuquerque, New Mexico. The two military pilots reported the sighting as a meteor. The object was so brilliant that one observer could see it from ten miles away despite standing on snow-fields in bright sunlight.

Dr. Lincoln La Paz, Director of the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico, gathered all available witness reports of the phenomenon. He described it as a detonating fireball of exceptional magnitude, rivaling the record-breaking meteorite fall of February 18, 1943 in Kansas and Nebraska in terms of light and sound effects. The fireball produced remarkable sound phenomena that received widespread news coverage. Based on careful observations, Dr. La Paz determined that the object remained luminous down to a very low altitude, suggesting that if it were a normal meteorite, solid fragments would likely have survived the fall and left visible impact craters.

Despite these expectations, no meteorite fragments were ever recovered. Dr. La Paz noted that this case followed a pattern set by two earlier detonating fireballs in the region, the January 30, 1949 fireball near Amarillo-Lubbock and the December 4, 1940 fireball near Campo, Colorado, both of which also yielded no recoverable meteorites despite intensive searches. He recommended that the Air Force conduct photographic reconnaissance and exhaustive ground searches of the estimated impact zone, a three-by-six-mile rectangular area near Tafoya, New Mexico. The 17th District Office of Special Investigations declined to assign personnel for ground search but contacted the Special Weapons Command about aerial photography, which was denied due to lack of equipment and personnel.

The Air Force ultimately classified this case as unidentified, though with a notation of "possibly balloon" among the conclusion options. The full case file, consisting of 12 pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.