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

[MARK BOSTICK]

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.

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