On December 29, 1980, Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum, and her seven-year-old grandson Colby encountered a diamond-shaped craft expelling flames above a road near Dayton, Texas; all three suffered symptoms consistent with radiation exposure, and Cash was hospitalized with blistering and hair loss within days.

Seven additional witnesses independently corroborated seeing strange lights and helicopters, estimated at 23 CH-47 Chinooks surrounding the object. Cash and the Landrums sued the U.S. government for $20 million in 1983. The case was dismissed in 1986 after the court found no agency acknowledged operating such a craft, but the judge did not dispute that the plaintiffs' injuries were genuine.