1953 Kingman AZ Saucer Crashsite

The AMAZING TRUTH Behind The 1953 Kingman, Arizona, Saucer Crashsite

Throughout the late 1940s and all of the 1950s UFOs were frequently seen and reported in the Southwestern United States. They were seen before that, but most witnesses had no idea what they were seeing until after the June 24, 1947 aerial sighting of ‘broken saucer’ shaped objects in Washington state by well-respected pilot Kenneth Arnold.

His experience was widely publicized and gave future witnesses a frame of reference. So did the news story about the U.S. Army Air Force capture of a crashed “flying disc” less than two weeks later in Roswell, New Mexico. A fact first admitted, then later denied by the Air Force.

Prior to the 1980s I often wondered why flying saucers suddenly began crashing, and why primarily in the southwest? In 1989 I met an amazing UFO witness who became a treasure trove of information. That's because he not only had one of the strangest ongoing Alien encounters I ever investigated*, but was a brilliant technical writer and more.

Through him and friends he had in the technical community, I discovered that UFOs began crashing in the southwest because the U.S.Military was testing a new and powerful long distance radar technology there. The radar sent out a signal that, it was later discovered, interfered with the operation of a UFO's technology. I was the first to bring this fact to the public in my seminars, newsletter and (later) my website.

Whether purposeful or not, the continued use of the new radar system kept bringing down the Saucers. Such was the case in the Kingman-Paradise Valley UFO crash where the testing of new radar technology in 1953 has been verified. It's also worth mentioning that a nuclear bomb and new weapon technology was being stored or tested near Roswell and Kingman. Interest in those things might have attracted the UFOs in the first place.

Kingman, Arizona, has always been a popular stop on historic Route 66 because it runs right through the town. These days that is still the case, but many tourists also include UFO researchers and interested parties who just want to see where a UFO crashed eight miles northeast of the Kingman airport on May 21, 1953. An author named Preston Dennett (UFOs Over Arizona) who has deeply researched the crash says, "It's very rare to have multiple witnesses, multiple sources of information, confirming an incident like this one." The Mohave Museum of History and Arts (off Route 66) in Kingman is a must see for UFO buffs. They have an area specifically dedicated to the crash which features newspaper articles, sketches and government documents concerning the event. The exhibit includes information from eyewitnesses. One of those was Arthur Stansel.

He was an Air Force Engineer who studied the impact nuclear blasts had on homes and buildings. Arthur was one of 40 people transported to the crash scene in a bus with blacked-out windows. On arrival, they disembarked the bus and immediately saw a disc with portholes measuring fourteen feet high and thirty feet in diameter (the typical reported size of most saucers). It was made out of an unfamiliar material and had dug twenty inches into the ground when it impacted, yet remained mostly undamaged.

It is believed that Stansel was there to determine the speed of the saucer as it came down, based upon the gouge it made in the soil. Arthur estimated that the saucer was traveling about 1200 miles per hour at the time of impact. A lifeless body was seen right next to the UFO. Witnesses say it was one of four beings who were four feet tall, had large eyes and wore silver metallic looking suits. The special detail of forty government specialists did not have full access to the body or craft; just to areas needed to complete their individual assignments.The length of their stay at the crash site is unknown. When their missions were completed, an Air Force Colonel in charge of the operation made them all sign secrecy documents. However, twenty years later Stansel signed an affidavit reportedly confirming what he saw at the crash site. More information came from another government whistle-blower.

Christopher Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, released a redacted document of a recorded conversation between himself and a person he called a “senior U.S. government member” whose name was not disclosed. It claimed citizens would be "slack-jawed" if they found out that their federal government found and seized an extraterrestrial craft and alien bodies from the Kingman Crash. However, some civilian witnesses claim the event involved multiple crafts, with one burning up, one found intact with some damage, and another landing intact with no damage. This may have also been the first crash incident where one or more living beings from the crafts were captured and allegedly used by the government to help reverse engineer their technology for military use. The first known public mention of the Kingman event was in author Frank Scully's classic book Behind The Flying Saucers.

*The entire amazing story of this UFO witness is told in my book…