The 1953 Kingman UFO Crash Retrieval

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By Derek Olson

Most people have heard about the Roswell incident, but very few people seem to have ever heard about the 1953 Kingman UFO crash retrieval. Pulling from leaked emails, eye-witness accounts and the sworn testimony of mechanical engineer Arthur G. Stansel who worked at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, I have pieced together the details of this incredible event. A crashed UFO, deceased entities and a government cover-up that supposedly took place in the remote desert region near Kingman, Arizona – this is the story of the Kingman UFO crash.

The earliest reference of a crash near Kingman, Arizona had been made to MUFON researcher Richard Hall in April of 1964. The case was then brought to public attention by Raymond Fowler, a respected UFO researcher, in June 1973. Fowler stated that his information came from engineer Arthur G. Stansel. Stansel signed a legal affidavit vouching to the honesty of his testimony, which was released by Ray Fowler in UFO Magazine of April 1976. Arthur G. Stansel was employed by Air Material Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Stansel was a mechanical engineer testing Air Force aircraft engines. Stansel was also working for the Atomic Energy Commission and was designated as a project engineer on some of the atomic bomb tests referred to as “Operation Upshot Knothole.” The location of these tests was at Frenchman’s Flats at the southern end of the Nevada Test Site.

On May 21, 1953 Stansel was called away by his boss and told to report for a special assignment at the Indian Springs Air Force Base where he was joined by about 15 other specialists. They were flown by military plane to Phoenix where they boarded a bus with blacked-out windows and rode for an estimated four hours. When they arrived at their destination somewhere southeast of Kingman, they were met and briefed by an Air Force Colonel who told them they were to investigate the crash of a super-secret test vehicle. He and the others on the bus were told not to speak to each other under any circumstances. Stansel job was to determine the forward and vertical velocities of the vehicle when it impacted into the sand.

Stansel was escorted to the site by military police. Two military arc-lights illuminated the saucer that was embedded into the sand. It was approx 30 feet in diameter and 14 feet tall. The saucer was embedded in the sand about 20 inches. After making measurements and later studying the crash site, Arthur Stansel concluded that the craft had struck the ground at approximately 1,200 miles per hour, but was strangely undamaged.

It was constructed of dull silver metal like brushed aluminum. It had a series of slots going around the outer circumference of the disc. The scientists were told the material the craft was made out of was classified. The craft featured a curved entry hatch, but had no hinges whatsoever. When they opened the hatch, they saw inside an oval interior cabin with two swivel seats and many instruments. Stansel saw one body recovered from the crash in a medical tent. It was a humanoid, about 4 feet tall, with brown skin and wearing a silver-metallic flight suit. The entity was wearing a skull-cap and a silver one-piece suit.

Below is the written testimony of Arthur Stansel

“I Arthur Stansel, do solemnly swear that during a special assignment with the U. S. Air Force on May 21st, 1953, I assisted in the investigation of a crashed unknown object in the vicinity of Kingman, Arizona. The object was constructed of an unfamiliar metal which resembled brushed aluminum. It had impacted twenty inches into the sand without any sign of structural damage. It was oval and about 30 meters in diameter. An entrance way hatch had been vertically lowered and opened. It was almost 3 ½ feet high and 1 ½ feet wide. I was able to speak to someone on the team who did look inside only briefly. He saw two swivel seats, an oval cabin, and a lot of instruments and displays. A tent pitched near the object sheltered the dead remains of the only occupant of the craft. It was about 4 feet tall, dark brown complexion, had 2 eyes, 2 nostrils, 2 ears, and a small round mouth. It was clothed in a silvery metallic suit and wore a skull cap of the same type of material. It wore no face covering or helmet. I certify the above statement is true by affixing my signature to this document this day of June 7th, 1973”.

In 1977, UFO researcher Leneord Stringfield received a supporting account from a National Guard member at Wright-Patterson. The witness described a 1953 delivery from an Arizona crash site involving three bodies, each about four feet tall with large heads and brownish skin, packed in dry ice. Stringfield believed that these entities also came from the Kingman crash.

The scientists were only allowed to stay on the site for about one hour as a group & were then quickly loaded back onto the bus and left. Back on the bus, all of the members of the assignment were ordered to sign the “official secrets” act, and were warned not to discuss what they had seen with anyone. In a hurry to clear the crash site, the army core of engineers brought in an M25 tank transporter with a long 18 wheeler tractor trailer behind it. They built a large wooden cradle and then propped up the craft into it. They quickly headed toward the Hoover damn where they strung a huge cable across the Colorado river. They then brought a barge down the river and attempted to drive the tank transporter onto the barge. But as the transport started to cross the river the cable snapped, and at one point the outer wall of the disc hit the hoover dam! Eventually they somehow were able to cross the river.

According to researcher Harry Drew, they eventually brought this craft to a remote operating facility at Groom Lake. Harry Drew interviewed a Col Wendell Stevens who was also part of the retrieval operation. Wendell Stevens described seeing a pyramidal looking rock outcropping when he was at the crash site in 1953. According to Harry Drew, he later went to the site and actually found this pyramidal looking rock outcropping, which led him to believe that Stevens really was at the crash site all those years ago.

In July 2023, 70 years after the alleged Kingman UFO incident, former intelligence officer David Grusch testified before Congress about the reality of illegal special access programs being operated without official congressional oversight. He asserted that non-human “biologics” and recovered craft were in the position of these programs that were operating with defense contractors to the United States. In 2020, declassified emails between a senior government official and someone named Christopher Mellon mention the Kingman crash…