Events

Roswell UAP Crash

The July 1947 incident near Roswell, New Mexico, in which debris was recovered from a crashed object, sparking enduring controversy over whether the US government concealed evidence of an extraterrestrial craft.

1947-07 · Near Roswell, New Mexico, USA

The Roswell UAP Crash refers to an incident in July 1947 in which debris was recovered from a crashed object near Roswell, New Mexico, USA. On 5 July 1947, ranch foreman Mac Brazel found crash debris scattered across a cattle ranch approximately 120 kilometres from Roswell.¹ Jesse Marcel, the intelligence officer dispatched to the site, described a massive field of debris approximately 1,200 metres long and 60 to 90 metres wide, with a gouge extending up to 150 metres long.² On 8 July 1947, Colonel William Blanchard ordered Walter Haut to issue a press release announcing that the US Army had recovered a flying disc.³ The resulting Roswell 1947 Press Release stated that the intelligence office of the 509th Bomb Group had gained possession of a disc,⁴ and the Roswell Daily Record ran the headline “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region”.⁵ Within hours, General Ramey issued a counter-statement asserting the recovered object was simply a weather balloon,⁶ a retraction that David Fravor later noted followed within a day of the initial flying saucer announcement.⁷

Controversy over the official explanation persisted for decades, driven in part by testimony from those present at the time. Jesse Marcel later claimed that the real debris he had recovered was substituted by General Ramey with wreckage from a weather balloon, and that he personally believed what had crashed was extraterrestrial in origin.⁸ In 1978, Marcel told researcher Stanton Friedman of his convictions, prompting Friedman to allege what he termed a “cosmic Watergate cover-up”.⁹ The US Air Force’s Roswell Air Force 1994 Report later acknowledged that the original weather balloon account was false, attributing the wreckage instead to the classified Project MOGUL — a programme designed to monitor Soviet nuclear tests via high-altitude balloons.¹⁰ The Roswell Report Fact vs Fiction 1995 reiterated that no information had been located indicating the incident involved a UFO, and that recovered materials were consistent with a Project Mogul balloon.¹¹ A further USAF report in 1997 provided additional materials in support of the same conclusion.¹² The Government Accountability Office found in 1995 that four air accidents were reported by the US Army Air Force in New Mexico during July 1947, all occurring after 8 July 1947.¹³ Separately, the same review found that not a single document from Roswell Army Airfield covering the crash period had survived — every document had been destroyed with no apparent authorisation.¹⁴ President Bill Clinton, who had pushed for that review, acknowledged publicly that many mysteries surrounding Roswell remained.¹⁵

Walter Haut, who had authored the original 1947 press release at Blanchard’s direction, provided further testimony decades later. In the Walter Haut Roswell Affidavit 2002, signed on 2002-12-26, Haut stated he was taken by Colonel Blanchard to a hangar where he viewed recovered child-sized bodies with abnormally large heads lying under a tarpaulin.¹⁶ The affidavit also described an apparent craft approximately 3.6 to 4.6 metres in length, roughly 1.8 metres high, and egg-shaped.¹⁷ Researcher Don Schmitt stated that the affidavit was drafted by himself and his co-author based on information Haut had provided over the years, and that Haut read and approved every word in the presence of his daughter, a notary, and a witness.¹⁸ Official investigations concluded separately that claims of alien bodies were most likely the result of conflation with a 1956 KC-97 aircraft accident and a 1959 manned balloon mishap,¹⁹ and that so-called alien bodies reported in the New Mexico desert were test dummies carried aloft by high-altitude balloons for scientific research.²⁰

A number of competing alternative hypotheses have been advanced outside official channels. Annie Jacobsen, in a 2011 history of Area 51, asserted that what crashed at Roswell was Russian in origin, built by captured Nazi scientists.²¹ Tom DeLonge advanced a similar claim in his DeLonge Joe Rogan Interview, also describing the craft as a Nazi-built Russian flying saucer.²² By contrast, Harold E. Puthoff told Luis Elizondo that the Roswell crash of 1947 was a genuine event in which four deceased nonhuman bodies were recovered.²³ Puthoff also presented the Roswell EMP Crash Hypothesis, proposing that the crash was caused by Electromagnetic Pulse energy — a by-product of atomic bomb testing at a nearby test range.²⁴ This hypothesis was further elaborated with the claim that the UAP may have been conducting reconnaissance on US atomic testing when an EMP caused it to crash,²⁵ and that the craft came down near a government test facility and broke into two crash sites.²⁶

Claims regarding physical evidence and recovered material have also featured in witness accounts. According to the Art’s Parts letters, alleged crash debris included corpses of alien occupants that were sent to Wright Patterson Air Force Base.²⁷ Harold E. Puthoff was reported to be in possession of material allegedly recovered from the Roswell crash, described as an intricate and fragile piece with multiple microscopic layers of interlacing bismuth and magnesium.²⁸ Luis Elizondo noted that the government revised its account of the Roswell incident at least twice in the decades following the crash.²⁹ Edgar Mitchell, whose hometown of Artesia, New Mexico, was near the crash site, reportedly confided to Harold E. Puthoff and Eric Davis that his family was among Roswell-area families threatened by the FBI after the incident, with agents visiting ranchers to warn that speaking about the crashes could cost them their lives.³⁰

References (30)

On 5 July 1947, ranch foreman Mac Brazel found crash debris scattered across a cattle ranch approximately 120 kilometres from Roswell.
“On 5 July 1947, a ranch foreman named Mac Brazel found crash debris scattered across a cattle ranch 120 kilometres from Roswell in New Mexico.”
Ross Coulthart UAP Book - Prologue, Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 Chapter 2
Jesse Marcel described a massive debris field approximately 1,200 metres long and 60 to 90 metres wide.
“Marcel described a massive field of debris 1200 metres long and 60 to 90 metres wide. There was allegedly a gouge in the field that extended up to 150 metres long, which looked as if 'something had touched down and skipped along'.”
Ross Coulthart UAP Book - Prologue, Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 Chapter 2
On 8 July 1947, Colonel William Blanchard ordered Walter Haut to issue a press release announcing recovery of a flying disc.
“At midday on the same day, 8 July 1947, Blanchard ordered his base public information officer Lieutenant Walter Haut to issue a press release announcing that the US Army had recovered a flying disc.”
Ross Coulthart UAP Book - Prologue, Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 Chapter 2
The Roswell Army Air Force Base press release stated the intelligence office had gained possession of a disc.
“The initial press release issued by the US Army clearly referred to a recovered 'flying disc'. It began: 'The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of 509th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc.'”
Ross Coulthart UAP Book - Prologue, Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 Chapter 2
The Roswell Daily Record ran the headline 'RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region' on 8 July 1947.
“'RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region', Roswell Daily Record, 8 Jul 1947, p. 1.”
Ross Coulthart UAP Book - Prologue, Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 Chapter 2, endnote 13
General Ramey issued a statement three hours later asserting the recovered disc was simply a weather balloon.
“Just three hours after the noon Roswell press release, General Ramey issued a new statement through Associated Press asserting that the supposed flying disc was simply a weather balloon.”
Ross Coulthart UAP Book - Prologue, Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 Chapter 2
The initial Roswell press release announced a crashed flying saucer, but was retracted the following day and replaced with a weather balloon explanation.
“go back to roswell so the first reports that came out of roswell was we have this crash flying saucer that's literally what came out and then magically the next day it's a weather balloon”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 01:50:38
Jesse Marcel later claimed the real debris he brought from Roswell was substituted by General Ramey with weather balloon wreckage, and that he believed what crashed was extraterrestrial.
“he claimed he had been ordered to collude in a cover-up and dramatically alleged in multiple interviews that the real debris he brought with him that day from Roswell was substituted by General Ramey with wreckage from an old weather balloon, and that he actually believed what crashed at Roswell was extra-terrestrial.”
Ross Coulthart UAP Book - Prologue, Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 Chapter 2
Jesse Marcel told Stanton Friedman in retirement that what crashed at Roswell was extraterrestrial, leading Friedman to allege a 'cosmic Watergate cover-up'.
“In retirement, Marcel told the 'real' story to nuclear physicist and self-described flying saucer researcher Stanton Friedman. Friedman then alleged a 'cosmic Watergate cover-up' of a recovered alien spacecraft and alien bodies.”
Ross Coulthart UAP Book - Prologue, Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 Chapter 2
The US Air Force's 1994 report admitted the weather balloon story was false, claiming the wreckage was from the top-secret Project MOGUL.
“The air force's 1994 report claimed the wreckage that was recovered was from a then top-secret balloon project designed to monitor Soviet nuclear tests, known as Project MOGUL.”
Ross Coulthart UAP Book - Prologue, Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 Chapter 2
The USAF published The Roswell Report in 1995, stating research did not locate information indicating the incident was a UFO event and that materials were consistent with a Project Mogul balloon.
“The report stated that the USAF's research did not locate or develop any information that indicated the "Roswell Incident" was a UFO event, nor was there any "cover-up" by the USG. Rather, the materials recovered near Roswell were consistent with a balloon of the type used in the then-classified Project Mogul.”
AARO Historical Record Report Volume I: U.S. Government Involvement with UAP page 22-23, Roswell Investigations Results
The USAF published a follow-on report in 1997, The Roswell Report: Case Closed, with additional materials supporting the balloon-borne programme conclusion.
“The USAF subsequently published a follow-on report in 1997, The Roswell Report: Case Closed, with additional materials and analysis which supported its conclusion that the debris recovered near Roswell was from the U.S. Army Air Force's balloon-borne program.”
AARO Historical Record Report Volume I: U.S. Government Involvement with UAP page 23, Roswell Investigations Results
The GAO's 1995 report found four air accidents reported by the US Army Air Force in New Mexico during July 1947.
“Four air accidents were reported by the Army Air Force in New Mexico during July 1947. All involved military aircraft and occurred after July 8, 1947 - the date the RAAF public information office first reported the crash and recovery of a "flying disc" near Roswell.”
AARO Historical Record Report Volume I: U.S. Government Involvement with UAP page 23, Roswell Investigations Results
The US Congress General Accounting Office 1995 review found that not a single document from Roswell Army Airfield in the crash period survived; every document was destroyed with no apparent authorisation.
“As the US Congress's General Accounting Office discovered during its 1995 review of the incident's paperwork, not a single document from the Roswell Army Airfield in the crash period survives; every bit of paper relating to this 1947 incident was destroyed with no apparent authorisation.”
Ross Coulthart UAP Book - Prologue, Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 Chapter 2
Bill Clinton pushed for the GAO's 1995 review of all Roswell papers, which reported that records were destroyed without authority.
“He also pushed for the General Accounting Office's 1995 review of all the Roswell papers, which reported that the Roswell records were destroyed without authority.”
Ross Coulthart UAP Book - Prologue, Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 paragraph 2
Walter Haut testified in a 2002 affidavit that he was taken to a hangar to view recovered child-sized bodies with abnormally large heads.
“There is also the extraordinary deathbed affidavit of former US Army public information officer Lieutenant Walter Haut, who testified in 2002 that he was taken out to a hangar by Colonel Blanchard to view recovered child-sized bodies with abnormally large heads, lying under a tarpaulin at the base.”
Ross Coulthart UAP Book - Prologue, Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 Chapter 2
Walter Haut's 2002 affidavit described an apparent craft approximately 3.6 to 4.6 metres in length, about 1.8 metres high, and egg-shaped.
“he alleged that Blanchard allowed him to see an apparent alien craft in a hangar 'approx. 12 to 15 feet in length, not quite as wide, about 6 feet high and more of an egg shape.'”
Ross Coulthart UAP Book - Prologue, Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 Chapter 2
Don Schmitt stated that he and his co-author drafted Walter Haut's affidavit based on information Haut had provided over the years, and that Haut read and approved every word.
“'We prepared the statement based on all the information that Walter had provided us through the years. And he read through it; his daughter was present. There was a notary present, there was another witness present.'”
Ross Coulthart UAP Book - Prologue, Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 Chapter 2
Alleged 'alien' bodies reported in the New Mexico desert were test dummies carried aloft by US Army Air Force high-altitude balloons for scientific research.
“The alleged "alien" bodies reported by some in the New Mexico desert were test dummies that were carried aloft by U.S. Army Air Force high-altitude balloons for scientific research.”
AARO Historical Record Report Volume I: U.S. Government Involvement with UAP page 23, Roswell Investigations Results
Claims of alien bodies at the Roswell Army Air Force hospital were most likely the result of conflation of a 1956 KC-97 aircraft accident and a 1959 manned balloon mishap.
“Claims of "alien bodies" at the Roswell Army Air Force (RAAF) hospital were most likely the result of the conflation of two separate incidents: a 1956 KC-97 aircraft accident in which 11 Air Force members lost their lives; and a 1959 manned balloon mishap in which two Air Force pilots were injured.”
AARO Historical Record Report Volume I: U.S. Government Involvement with UAP page 23, Roswell Investigations Results
Annie Jacobsen asserted that what crashed at Roswell was actually Russian, crafted by captured Nazi Germany scientists.
“Jacobsen's extraordinary assertion that what crashed at Roswell was actually Russian, crafted by captured Nazi Germany scientists”
Ross Coulthart UAP Book - Prologue, Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 Chapter 13, paragraph 2
Tom DeLonge told Joe Rogan that the Roswell crash was a Nazi-built Russian flying saucer.
“As Annie Jacobsen also claimed, DeLonge averred he was told the Roswell crash was a Nazi-built Russian flying saucer.”
Ross Coulthart UAP Book - Prologue, Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 Chapter 16, paragraph 6
Harold Puthoff told Luis Elizondo that the Roswell UAP crash of 1947 was real and that four deceased nonhuman bodies were recovered.
“Hal went on to tell me something else that truly blew my mind. Four deceased nonhuman bodies were in fact recovered from the 1947 Roswell crash.”
Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs — Chapter 2 (image only) Chapter 4, paragraphs 20-22 and paragraph 24
Harold Puthoff presented the theory that the Roswell crash was caused by EMP energy — a by-product of the atomic bomb — at a nearby test range.
“Hal Puthoff appeared in my office to share a fascinating theory. He had been thinking a lot about how the Roswell crash was believed to have been caused by DoD experiments with electromagnetic pulse (EMP) energy, a by-product of the atomic bomb, at one of the nearby test ranges.”
Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs — Chapter 2 (image only) Chapter 9, paragraph 29
It was hypothesised that the UAP that crashed at Roswell had been conducting reconnaissance on US atomic testing when an EMP caused it to crash.
“It was hypothesized that the UAP that crashed at Roswell had been conducting some sort of reconnaissance on our budding atomic program when the unexpected happened. An electromagnetic pulse generated from one of the nearby test ranges had inadvertently intervened with the craft's technology and caused it to crash.”
Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs — Chapter 2 (image only) Chapter 4, paragraph 27
The Roswell UAP fell near a government test facility in New Mexico and broke into two crash sites.
“A UAP fell that day in the vicinity of a government test facility in New Mexico and broke into two crash sites.”
Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs — Chapter 2 (image only) Chapter 4, paragraph 27
According to the Art's Parts letters, alleged Roswell crash debris included corpses of alien occupants sent to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
“The corpses of its dead alien comrades were sent to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio”
Ross Coulthart UAP Book - Prologue, Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 Chapter 18, paragraph 2
Harold Puthoff was in possession of material allegedly recovered from the Roswell crash: an intricate piece with multiple microscopic layers of interlacing bismuth and magnesium.
“Hal had in his possession material allegedly recovered from the Roswell crash. It was an intricate and fragile piece revealing multiple microscopic layers of interlacing bismuth and magnesium. It also seemed to have a beveled edge.”
Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs — Chapter 2 (image only) Chapter 16, paragraph on recovered material
The government revised the Roswell cover story at least twice in the seventy-odd years since the incident.
“The government has revised the Roswell cover story at least twice more in the ensuing seventy-odd years, replacing the first lie with more clever lies.”
Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs — Chapter 2 (image only) Chapter 4, paragraph 28
Edgar Mitchell confided to Harold Puthoff and Eric Davis that his family was among Roswell families threatened by the FBI after the crashes.
“He once confided to Hal and Eric that his family was among the Roswell families who were threatened by the FBI after the famous Roswell crashes. FBI agents visited ranchers in the region, going door-to-door to deliver the threatening message: if you speak about the crashes, you will be killed.”
Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs — Chapter 2 (image only) Chapter 4, paragraph 14

Roswell UAP Crash

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