The Lubbock Lights incident received national publicity in the United States as a UFO sighting, and was investigated by the U.S. Air Force.
According to Ruppelt, they were sitting in the backyard of one of the professor's homes when they observed a total of 20-30 lights, as bright as stars but larger in size, flying overhead.
According to one of the professors named Grayson Mead, the lights "appeared to be about the size of a dinner plate and they were greenish-blue, slightly fluorescent in color.
[4] On the evening of August 30, 1951, Carl Hart, Jr., a freshman at Texas Tech, observed a group of 18-20 white lights in a "v" formation flying overhead.
When a third group of lights passed overhead they began to circle the Bryants' home, and were identified by sight and sound as plovers.
[13] J.C. Cross, the head of Texas Tech's biology department, and a game warden interviewed by Ruppelt both claimed the sightings could not have been birds.
[16] Among the witnesses was the wife of Ducker, who reported that in August 1951 she had observed a "huge, soundless flying wing" pass over her house.
[18] In November 1999, Dallas, Texas-based television station KDFW aired a news story about the Lubbock Lights.
Reporter Richard Ray interviewed Carl Hart, Jr. about taking the famous photos and being investigated by the U.S. Air Force.
In 2006, Lubbock-based alternative country band Thrift Store Cowboys wrote and recorded a song titled "Lubbock Lights" on their third album, Lay Low While Crawling or Creeping.