THE AZTEC FLYING SAUCER CRASH HOAX

In 1948, there was an alleged flying saucer crash in Aztec, New Mexico. This was just eight months after the Roswell, New Mexico UFO crash.  To this day, the controversy remains whether the Aztec crash was a hoax.

 THE ROSWELL CRASH

In June of 1947, a rancher, W.W. Brazel, found metallic debris in his sheep pasture near Roswell, New Mexico. The Roswell Army Field Base released a statement claiming they had recovered a flying disc. The news made international headlines. The next day, the Army retracted their statement identifying the object as a standard weather balloon. This set in motion worldwide conspiracy theories.

In 1994, the government released a report stating the object actually was a top-secret balloon to identify Soviet nuclear testing. The humanoid bodies found at the site were in fact crash test dummies, the government claimed.

To this day, this event remains the pivotal UFO incident in the United States.

THE AZTEC FLYING SAUCER CRASH

Just eight months later, another spacecraft was reported to have crashed in New Mexico. Variety Magazine published a series of articles detailing this supposed crash of a flying saucer in Aztec, New Mexico. These articles and later a 1950 best-selling book, “Behind the Flying Saucers” by journalist Frank Scully, told the story of the Aztec crash as relayed to him by two highly respected scientists: Silas Newton, an oil company geophysicist and Leo A. Gebauer, a magnetic and electronics expert. Scully’s book received widespread coverage and set the stage for the public’s acceptance of UFOs.

NEWTON AND GEBAUER CLAIMED TO SEE IT FIRSTHAND

According to Newton and Gebauer, in March 1948, a ninety-nine-foot flying saucer made a controlled landing in Hart Canyon, twelve miles from Aztec, New Mexico. They claimed to have personally witnessed the recovery of the craft. Newton had been called in as a technical authority to examine the flying saucer. Gebauer was able to determine that the craft was powered by magnetism and constructed so that every dimension of the craft could be divided by nine. The United States military recovered the craft and suppressed the incident from the American people with the purpose of conducting secret experiments on alien technology.

THE ALIENS

Scully claimed there were sixteen humanoids aboard the craft who were approximately three feet tall and originated from the planet Venus. They were killed when a porthole on the spaceship blew out.

WHY FABRICATE THE HOAX?

People might have never questioned Newton’s and Gebauer’s story had they not started selling a device which they claimed had been developed by reverse engineering alien technology. This device, which they called a “doodlebug”, could allegedly pinpoint underground deposits of minerals and oil as well as: water, and even gold.

PROOF THE DOODLEBUG WAS REVERSE ENGINEERED

A San Francisco Chronicle reporter, J.P. Cahn, wanted proof of these claims. Newton gave him what he alleged was a piece of spacecraft, a metal unknown to planet Earth. Testing broke open Newton and Gebauer’s claims. The extraterrestrial metal turned out to be common aluminum. Cahn was then able to determine that for the past twenty years; the pair had been involved in numerous scams. The Denver District Attorney brought charges against them. In 1953, they were both convicted of fraud and conspiracy.

This destroyed Scully’s professionally credibility and had a chilling effect on the UFO research community. Until the 1970s, researchers avoided supporting stories of crashed alien spacecrafts.

WAS IT REALLY A HOAX?

In 1974, UFO researcher Robert Spencer Carr claimed humanoid bodies were being stored at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Hangar 18. Eight years earlier, a book, “Incident at Exeter”, cited this rumor. In the late 1970s, author Leonard Stringfield maintained that the Aztec incident was one of many the government was covering up. The government denied this and claimed Hangar 18 did not exist. Following this, many authors have claimed that the Aztec crash was real often mixing events at Roswell with the Aztec incident.

DID THE GOVERNMENT SET UP NEWTON AND GEBAUER?

In 2012 a claim was made in the book, “The Aztec UFO Incident” by Scott and Suzanne Ramsay and Frank Thayer that Newton and Gebauer’s trial was a set-up to discredit them and cover up the real incident. The book, however, dismissed any facts that went against their hypothesis.

In 2013, the FBI released documents online relating to Aztec. One such document was a 1950 memo written by FBI agent Guy Hottel stating the incident was real. UFO enthusiasts point to this as a previous cover up by the government. The agency rebutted these claims pointing out that the information came from second and third-hand sources that were never investigated.

There were no published reports at the time of the alleged Aztec accident that it had ever happened. Neither the residents of Aztec, the family that owned the land of the alleged crash site nor the sheriff’s office claimed to know anything about a flying saucer crash.

Newton continued his life of scamming. At the time of his death in 1972, there were 40 outstanding legal claims lodged against him for fraudulent oil and gas schemes.

HOAX OR GOVERNMENT COVER-UP?

In the end, there are two very different stories about the Aztec crash. One is the story of two con men trying to make a buck off the country’s fascination with the Roswell space crash. The other is the story of three-foot humanoids crashing into Earth that the government has covered up.