A 1947 incident involving an unidentified object that crashed near Roswell, New Mexico. Initially announced as a "flying disc," the military later retracted the statement, claiming it was a weather balloon.
In late June to early July 1947, mysterious debris was found on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. Rancher Mac Brazel reported the debris to the local sheriff, who notified the Roswell Army Air Field (now Walker Air Force Base).
On July 8, 1947, Walter Haut, the public information officer at Roswell Army Air Field, issued a press release stating that a "flying disc" had been recovered. The next day, higher command retracted the statement, announcing the debris was from a "weather balloon." This sudden reversal ignited decades of conspiracy theories.
In 1994, the Air Force published the report "The Roswell Report: Case Closed," revealing that the debris was from Project Mogul, a classified high-altitude balloon program designed to monitor Soviet nuclear tests.
Witnesses described the debris as containing materials "not of this Earth," including thin, silver metallic fragments and I-beam-shaped pieces inscribed with purplish symbols. However, these descriptions are consistent with the neoprene rubber and balsa wood radar targets used in Project Mogul.
Starting in 1978, multiple individuals came forward claiming that alien bodies were recovered from the crash site. A 1997 Air Force report suggested that anthropomorphic test dummies used in 1950s parachute drop experiments may have been conflated with the 1947 incident through memory confusion.
Allegedly discovered in 1984, these purported top-secret documents claim that President Truman established a 12-member secret committee to investigate UFO debris. However, the FBI has determined them to be forgeries.
