Cash–Landrum incident in East Texas

On the evening of 29 December 1980, Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum, and her grandson Colby were driving home along an isolated stretch of road northeast of Houston, Texas, when they reported a large, diamond-shaped object hovering above the treeline emitting bursts of flame and intense heat. They described the object as escorted overhead by what they counted as approximately twenty-three twin-rotor military helicopters consistent with the CH-47 Chinook.

In the days that followed, all three witnesses reported serious medical symptoms including nausea, skin lesions, and hair loss. Cash and the Landrums subsequently filed a $20 million claim against the U.S. government, which was dismissed in 1986 after federal agencies, including the Army, Air Force, Navy, and NASA, declined to acknowledge ownership of the object. The case is among the most-cited 'physical injury' UAP reports in the U.S. record.