1953 Kingman, Arizona Crash Retrieval
The 1953 Kingman, Arizona Crash Retrieval refers to the alleged recovery of an unidentified oval craft near Kingman, Arizona on May 21, 1953. It is among the earliest alleged crash retrievals in UAP research to be backed by a notarized sworn affidavit, and its primary witness — Arthur Stansel Jr. — has verifiable professional credentials distinguishing him from more contested figures in the disclosure literature.
| Date | 1953-05-21 |
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The Incident
On the evening of May 20, 1953, Arthur Stansel Jr. — then serving as an AEC project engineer measuring blast effects at Frenchman's Flat, Nevada during Operation Upshot-Knothole — received a phone call from Ed Doll, physicist and project director for the nuclear test series. Doll informed Stansel of a special assignment the next day. Stansel and 15 other Atomic Energy Commission specialists reported to Indian Springs Air Force Base, surrendered personal items to military police, and were transported by blacked-out bus for approximately four hours to a site in the desert near Kingman.
At the site, two high-intensity spotlights illuminated a crashed object ringed by armed guards. The craft was oval, approximately 30 feet in diameter, made of brushed aluminum-like material with no seams, rivets, or structural damage despite impacting 20 inches into the desert sand. An open hatch approximately 3.5 feet tall and 1.5 feet wide was visible on the leading end. A colleague who glimpsed the interior reported two swivel-like seats, an oval cabin, and anomalous instrument displays. In a guarded tent near the craft lay a single dead occupant: a humanoid approximately 4 feet tall, dark brown complexion, clothed in a silvery metallic suit and skull cap, with no helmet or face covering.
Stansel estimated the impact velocity at approximately 1,200 mph based on his engineering specialization in blast-effects analysis. All 16 specialists were sworn to secrecy and directed to write reports longhand only. Stansel disclosed his account to researcher Raymond Fowler in 1973, signing a sworn affidavit on June 7, 1973, initially under the pseudonym "Fritz Werner"; his real name was later confirmed and published.
Corroborating Testimony
Bill Uhouse, a 14-year USMC veteran and mechanical engineer whose service record has been independently verified, claimed separately that a representative from Link Aviation recruited him in the late 1950s to help build a flying disc simulator modeled on the Kingman craft. Uhouse placed the craft's transport at Area 51 (Groom Lake) and the occupants at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The simulator allegedly became operational between 1963 and 1964.
In 1997, researcher Leonard Stringfield was approached at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati, Ohio, by a pilot claiming to have been at the crash site, who independently described the occupants as approximately 4 feet tall, large-eyed, brown-skinned, in silvery metallic suits — consistent with Stansel's account.
Institutional Context and Legacy
Edward Bushnell Doll, the AEC official who coordinated the Stansel assignment, subsequently joined TRW Systems Group (approximately 1955–1977). The Kingman event is cited in UAP legacy program research as a founding data point in the chain of non-human craft exploitation passing from AEC-connected personnel through TRW and ultimately to Northrop Grumman following TRW's 2002 acquisition. A blocked material transfer from Lockheed Martin to the AAWSAP program has also been connected by researchers to Kingman-era recovered materials.
Stansel's supervisor at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dr. Eric Henry Wang, is independently alleged to have been a key UAP reverse-engineering director dating from the 1948 Aztec UFO Crash Retrieval forward.
Three months after the Kingman crash, the USAF issued Regulation 200-2, diverting UFO reports to Air Force Intelligence rather than Project Blue Book.