[meteorite-list] NPA 02-14-1955 Weird Fireball Flashes Across East Texas Area

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: The Port Arthur News
City: Port Arthur, Texas
Date: Monday, February 14, 1955
Page: 1

Weird Fireball Flashes Across East Texas Area

     TYLER, Tex. (AP) - A fireball, its weird green light casting a fiery 
glow over three men in an airport control tower, flashed like a "huge 
electric arc" across the east Texas piney woods last night.
     It was apparently a meteorite. There were unconfirmed reports it 
exploded or hit the ground, but no evidence of it had been found.
     Information indicated it was first seen here and disappeared some 60 
miles south near Lufkin. But the Weather bureau at Dallas got reports of 
people seeing its glow as far as Jackson, Miss., to the east and Mineral 
Wells in west Texas.
    The most vivid account came from J. N. Aber, a control tower operator at 
Pounds Field here. Here's his story:
     "Around midnight this light seemed to pop out of the sky directly above 
us. It looked like a huge electric arc. It was green-ish, like the tip of a 
welder's torch.
    "It was going due south. There were three of us in the tower. We of 
course had the lights on, but the room lighted up brilliantly. It was a 
blinding light, the brightest I ever saw. We all turned and watched it 
disappear to the south, about 30 degrees above the horizon. It looked like a 
football with a short tail. It lasted just a second."

No Injuries, Damage

     There were no reports of injuries or damage.
     John Fonataine, aidway operator specialist at Lufkin, said:
     "Along about midnight we felt a precussion as if from an explosion. We 
didn't see a flash, but it was reportedly seen in town. They said it went 
down somewhere between Tyler and Lufkin. Everybody in town is stirred up 
about it. Several said that when it hit it felt like a car door slamming."
     The fireball was also seen from Longview.
     The sheriff's dispatcher at Jacksonville, C. M. Hopkins, said he had no 
reports of the meteorite's exploding or hitting ground. Neither were there 
any such reports from Rusk.

Flood of Phone Calls

     The glow lighted up the sky southeast of Dallas. Phone calls flooded 
the Weather bureau there.
     Many said the fireball was red, white and other colors. A Dallas 
meteorologist said, "it was probably a meteorite, and the color depends on 
when you saw it."

(end)

Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
Wichita, Kansas
http://www.meteoritearticles.com
http://www.kansasmeteoritesociety.com
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