On the evening of December 29, 1980, Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum and Vickie's seven-year-old grandson Colby were driving home to Dayton, Texas, along a quiet road through pine woods when they saw a bright light above the trees.
They said the light came from a huge diamond-shaped object hovering at treetop height, shooting flame from its base and giving off heat. They got out of the car to look, then drove on, and watched the object move away surrounded by more than twenty helicopters, many of them twin-rotor Chinooks.
All three said they fell ill with burns, sickness and hair loss, Betty Cash worst of all. They sued the US government for $20 million, but the case was dismissed in 1986 when the military said it had no such craft and no helicopters in the area. Skeptics have questioned the account and the medical evidence.