The Travis Walton UFO Incident That Inspired ‘Fire In The Sky’

Travis Walton and six of his co-workers have just finished a long day of work at Sitgreaves National Park in Arizona. The the men were headed home when a 40-foot in diameter, shiny disk hovering in the air. Curious about the strange craft, Walton exits the vehicle to get a better look. He describes the UFO as making a strange high pitched buzzing sound. Walton was knocked 30 feet away by what he describes as a blast of light. In a panic, the five other men peel off in the car and leave. Walton claims that the blast that sent him to the ground also made him completely numb. 

The next thing Travis Walton remembers is waking up in a hospital-like room. He finds himself surrounded by three figures that he instantly recognizes as not human. Walton describes the creatures as being humanoid, but very short and completely bald. According to Walton, he fought with the creatures for several minutes as they tried to examine him. Eventually, another human wearing a helmet approached Walton and lead him into a different room. In this room, Walton was joined by three other humans who proceeded to place a mask over his face. Travis Walton blacked out shortly thereafter only to find himself wandering down a highway five days later with no memory of how he got there.

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Immediately following the incident, Travis was declared missing and his coworkers came under investigation.

Walton initially had no idea how long he had disappeared for, and was caught up in the investigation. Several polygraph tests were administered as well as a complete physical and psychiatric evaluation. Unfortunately, each test came back inconclusive and despite Walton’s safe return, authorities had no leads to discover what had occurred.

In the years following Walton’s alleged abduction, he faced heavy criticisms from the general public. Many people claim that incident was a hoax orchestrated by Walton’s coworkers. Whether Travis himself was in on the hoax seems to be up for debate. Another theory is what had actually occurred was a planned attempt on Walton’s life by the men he was traveling with. 

Whether it was foul play that didn’t pan out or an actually alien abduction, we may never know.

A sensationalized version of Travis Walton’s story was adapted into a movie in 1993. ‘Fire in the Sky’ takes massive liberties with the actual abduction but does a good job of capturing the human drama involved with the case. However, watch it at your own risk, the actual abduction scene is a tad graphic.