that they should hire a lawyer, and seek financial compensation for their injuries. With attorney Peter Gersten taking on the case pro bono, the case wound its way through the U.S. courts for several years. Cash and Landrum sued the U.S. federal government for $20 million. Testimony of officials from NASA, the Air Force, and the Army and Navy was given. On August 21, 1986, a U.S. District Court judge dismissed their case, noting that the plaintiffs had not proved that the helicopters were associated with the U.S. federal government, and that military officials had testified that the United States Armed Forces did not have a large, diamond-shaped aircraft in their possession. As no governmental agency possessed an aircraft resembling the UFO, the case was dismissed. Media coverage The incident received coverage in both the tabloid press and mainstream media: In 1981, Landrum appeared on That's Incredible!, a popular ABC television program. She was hypnotized in front of a studio audience; under hypnosis she recounted the UFO incident. Landrum and Cash both appeared on the 1989 U.S television special, UFO Cover Up? Live!, hosted by Mike Farrell, where they related their account of the purported UFO encounter, and their subsequent medical problems and legal battles. The Cash–Landrum event was also depicted on the television programs Unsolved Mysteries and Sightings. In 2009, Colby appeared on UFO Hunters: Alien Fallout. Deaths of Cash and Landrum Cash died on December 29, 1998, 18 years after her claimed close encounter. Landrum died September 12, 2007. Investigations Landrum telephoned a number of U.S. government agencies and officials about the encounter. When she telephoned NASA, she was steered toward NASA aerospace engineer John Schuessler, long interested in UFOs. With some associates from civilian UFO research group Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), Schuessler began research on the case, and later wrote articles and a book on the subject. Astronomer Allan Hendry of Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) also briefly investigated the Cash–Landrum case. Due to the Chinook helicopters' presence, the witnesses presumed that at least one branch of the United States Armed Forces witnessed the object, if they were not escorting or pursuing it. However, investigators could find no evidence linking the helicopters with any branch of the military. In 1982, Lt. Col. George Sarran of the Department of the Army Inspector General began the only thorough formal governmental investigation into the supposed UFO encounter. He could not