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Engle, New Mexico, USA, on June 27, 1947:

Case number:

ACUFO-06-27-ENGLE-1

Summary:

The newspaper The Albuquerque Journal for June 29, 1947, among sightings from the ground of a "falling body" in Engle and New Mexico area, noted that a "Captain Dvyan of the Alamogordo air base", in a private plane near Engle, at about 8000 feet altitude, looked down and saw "a ball of fire with a blue fiery tail" about 2000 feet below him.

The newspaper added that it "disintegrated as he watched", and that "Dvyan said he was sure it was a meteorite."

The Press then noted that Colonel Harold R. Tuner (he was the White Sands Proving Grounds commander at the time) explained those sightings as a "meteorite"; Turner was to send an automobile to Engle to prove this.

In 1969, U.S. ufologist Ted Bloecher reported this case, adding that Engle was now called "Truth or Consequences", and that he could not find the dubious name "Dvyan" in the 1947 edition of The Army Register; with assistance of Miss Lynn Catoe of the Library of Congress, the Military Personnel Center in St. Louis was contacted, and they verified the fact that no "Dvyan" was registered in 1947. However, the records showed a Captain Robert D. Dwan, who was born in Texas and was on active duty in 1947; Bloecher thought he may be the pilot who made the air-to-air observation at Engle.

In 2000, U.S. ufologist Loren E. Gross also reported the case, suggesting that "Col. Turner was a bit uncomfortable with the meteor suggestion since the object was reported below Dvyan's plane."

Others would record this case, often without the witness' comment that he was "sure it was a meteorite," often without any reference to what Turner had said.

Data:

Temporal data:

Geographical data:

Witnesses data:

Ufology data:

Classifications:

Sources:

[Ref. ale1:] NEWSPAPER "THE ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL":

[Ref. tbr1:] TED BLOECHER:

Ted Bloecher indicated that there was an air-to-air sighting on June 27, 1947, near Engle.

In his statement about "meteorites" being "larger and coming closer to earth" Lt. Colonel Harold R. Turner, White Sands Commander, said that "two reports" of "falling bodies" were being investigated, one in Tularosa and another near Engle, New Mexico.

Bloecher indicated that the Engle sighting took place on June 27, 1947, near Engle, a small town ten miles east of Hot Springs now called "Truth or Consequences", in New Mexico.

Bloecher says "Captain Dvyan, an Alamogordo Air Base pilot," who was flying in a private plane near the area of Engle at 3,000 feet when he "looked down and saw a ball of fire, with a fiery blue tail behind it." The object was about 2,000 feet below him, and he said he was certain that "it was a meteorite." The pilot reported that as he watched, the object "disintegrated in the air."

Bloecher could not find the dubious name "Dvyan" in the 1947 edition of The Army Register; with assistance of Miss Lynn Catoe of the Library of Congress, the Military Personnel Center in St. Louis was contacted, and they verified the fact that no "Dvyan" was registered in 1947. However, the records show a Captain Robert D. Dwan, who was born in Texas and was on active duty in 1947; he may be the pilot who made the air-to-air observation at Engle.

[Ref. lgs1:] LOREN GROSS:

[Ref. dwn1:] DOMINIQUE WEINSTEIN:

French ufologist Dominique Weinstein compiled a catalog of the cases of UFOs observed from aircraft. The case in the February 2001 (6th edition) catalog appears as:

The sources "361/365 03" are referenced at the end of the catalog as:

[Ref. gvo1:] GODELIEVE VAN OVERMEIRE:

[Ref. gvo1:] GODELIEVE VAN OVERMEIRE:

[Ref. jcn1:] JAMES CARRION:

This ufologist says that at the end of June 1947, the following account came out of New Mexico:

Col. Harold R. Turner, commander of the White Sands Proving Ground, said today the "puzzling objects" sighted in the sky in New Mexico evidently were meteorites.

"They appear much larger and apparently are coming closer to earth than usual," he said.

Investigations of two reports of falling bodies, one in Tularosa and another near Engle, N.M. were made by Col. Turner today.

Capt. Dvyan of the Alamogordo Air Base, flying a private plane at about 3000 feet, reported he looked down to see a "ball of fire with blue fiery trail behind." The object was about 2000 feet below him, he said, and as he watched it disintegrated. He said he is sure it was a meteorite, Col. Turner reported.

The source of this quote is described as: "U.P. (1947, 29 June). Mystery ‘flying discs’ believed meteorites. The Los Angeles Time. p.3."

[Ref. get1:] GEORGE M. EBERHART:

Note: George Eberhart found an obituary of Robert Daspit Dwan (1919 - 2019), Col. Ret.; but according to this obituary he was not a flier.

[Ref. wia1:] "WIKIPEDIA" (EN):

The source "29" is detailed as; "Jun 1947, Page 2 - Albuquerque Journal at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com."

Aircraft information:

All that has been reported was that it was a private plane.

Discussion:

The US Press, on June 28, 29 and 30, 1947, reported that Colonel Turner had sent an automobile to Engle to investigate the case of a "falling body" report in Engle.

See for example:

The Albany Democrat, June 28, 1947.
The Green Bay Press, June 28, 1947.
The The Sheboygan Press, June 28, 1947.
The Des Moines Register, June 29, 1947.
The Dunkirk Evening Observer, June 30, 1947.

The Albuquerque Journal for July 2, 1947, reported on page 2:

"Hollis O. Cummins of Capitan writes: "Today (June 27) my mother noticed a shiny object streak to the sky about 10 a.m. ... Later in the day, a neighbor, Erv Dill, mentioned having seen a similar object, at the same time and going in the same direction. ... He said he believed it landed left on the C on Wilson Hill here."

The pilot described a meteor, and other people on the ground gave description of a meteor, apparently seen at 10:00 a.m. in that area.

So, Colonel Turner was certainly right when he explained this pilot report as caused by a meteor.

I am not convinced that the "Robert D. Dwan" found by Bloecher and Catoe [tbr1] is the correct one, because the biographical information indicates that he was in the Army. He may also have been a private pilot, but he would not have been connected with Alamogordo Air Base.

Evaluation:

Probable meteor.

Sources references:

* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.

• [ale1] * Article in the newspaper The Albuquerque Journal, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, pages 1,2, June 29, 1947.
• [lat1] ? Article in the newspaper The Los Angeles Time, Los Angeles, California, USA, page 3, June 29, 1947.
• [dke1] ? "Flying Saucers: Top Secret", book by Donald E. Keyhoe, USMC ret., G.P. Putnam's Sons publishers, USA, 1960.
• [tbr1] * "Report on the UFO Wave of 1947", compiled by Ted Bloecher, USA, 1967, updated 2005 by NICAP.
• [bzm1] ? "Le Mystère de Roswell", book by Charles Berlitz and William L. Moore, France Empire publishers, France, page 32, 1981.
• [lgs1] * "UFOS: a History - 1947 June 24th - July 6th - Supplemental Notes", monograph by Loren E. Gross, USA, self-published, pp 46-47, 2000.
• [dwn1] * "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena - Eighty years of pilot sightings - Catalog of Military, Airliner, Private Pilots' Sightings from 1916 to 2000", catalog compiled by Dominique F. Weinstein, NARCAP International Technical Advisor, France, 6th edition, February 2001.
• [gvo1] * "Chronologie OVNI", electronic catalogue compiled by Godelieve Van Overmeire, Belgium, circa 2002.
• [jcn1] * "The Roswell Deception", electronic book by James Carrion, USA, as of 2020.
• [get1] * "UFOs and Intelligence: A Timeline", electronic document by George M. Eberhart, May 31, 2022.
• [wia1] * "Table of reports during the 1947 flying disc craze", list on the Wikipedia (EN), as of 2026, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_reports_during_the_1947_flying_disc_craze

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This page was last updated on May 30, 2026.