On the night of December 29, 1980, on a remote road 40 miles outside Houston, restaurant owner Betty Cash, her friend Vicki Landrum, and Landrum's 7-year-old grandson, Colby, were returning home after a night out when a large, glowing, diamond-shaped aircraft spurting flames descended from the sky and hovered above the roadway in front of them. When they got out of the car to take a closer look at the object, which made a loud roaring noise, they were soon forced to return to the car because of the intense heat emanating from the craft. Cash claimed that as she grasped her car's hot door handle, her wedding ring burned into her hand. Soon thereafter, the mysterious aircraft flew away along with a swarm of black Chinooks, or military helicopters.

Cash, who had remained outside the car longer than the Landrums, was admitted to a local hospital as a burn victim. All three passengers manifested different symptoms of what appeared to be radiation sickness, such as burns, blisters, nausea, rashes, severe headaches, sore eyes, and hair and fingernail loss. Cash was later diagnosed with breast cancer and Landrum developed severe cataracts. ''I've never believed in UFOs, '' Mrs. Cash later told reporters. "I was the first one to laugh." But, she added, "I was terrified. Now I'm afraid to look up."

Two theories swirled around the incident: either the object was an experimental military device which had gone haywire on a test flight or, some speculated, it was a recovered alien aircraft which the Air Force was trying to fly. Cash and Landrum hired a lawyer, who filed suit against the government for $20 million in damages. The case dragged on in district court for several years and called upon the testimony of officials from NASA, the Air Force, and the Army and Navy, before being dismissed in 1986 because no governmental agency owned or operated any aircraft fitting Cash and Landrum's description. To this day, there is no conclusive explanation of the night's events.