File 041 · 29 December 1980
Cash–Landrum highway
Near Dayton, Texas, United States
Opened 9/4/2026
Ledger illustration of the file — not a photograph of the object. Ledger illustration of the report. A piney-woods two-lane at night. — Night Ledger illustration of the file
Standing
Unidentified
On the public record, and still open. A claim, paper, or film — not a finding that it was ours, and not a finding that it was not.
What was claimed
Three people in a car met a diamond-shaped object above the road, surrounded by helicopters. All three became ill. They sued the U.S. government and lost.
What is on the record
This file is a working record — a report, not a verdict. Official paper, if any, is linked where we have it.
Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum, and Landrum’s seven-year-old grandson were driving home on a rural FM road. A large, diamond-shaped object, belching flame, blocked their way. They got out. The heat was intense. Betty later said the car door was too hot to touch. Dozens of helicopters, some identified by the witnesses as CH-47 Chinooks, appeared around the object as it moved off.
Within hours they had burns, hair loss, vomiting, and swollen eyes — symptoms a Houston physician compared to ionizing radiation. Cash was hospitalized. A civil case against the U.S. government was dismissed: the plaintiffs could not prove which agency owned the helicopters.
No photograph of the object. Medical records of three civilians, a highway, and a swarm of helicopters that no unit claimed: that is the remainder of the file.
Could this have been ours?
The known sky, that night.
Satellites were already up. The station was not. Starlink was not.
Always
Venus and the bright planets
A fixed brilliant point. Does not streak. Does not hover over a street then leave. Often the first misread light in a rural report.
Always
Aircraft, balloons, meteors
Landing lights, flares, lanterns, reentries, fireballs. They are on the known sky. They do not close a file by themselves — they are what a serious look has to hold the claim against.
Orbit · Space — the desks for lights that are already named.
Sources
Related files
Same craft, same place, same years. A neighbor in the catalogue — not a conclusion.
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