Inman Echler Telephone Call
The Inman-Echler Telephone Call was a 1989 telephone conversation between NASA mission specialist Bob Echler and retired Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, in which Echler inquired about the possibility of making recovered UFO vehicles available for civilian scientific and technological research. The call was facilitated by Lord Hill Norton, a senior British naval officer with UAP interests, who provided Echler with Inman's contact information. During the call, Inman told Echler that CIA Directorate of Science and Technology Deputy Director Everett Heinman was "the best person to ask" about recovered craft in operational condition — a specific, unprompted referral that UAP researchers treat as evidence Inman had direct knowledge of which CIA officials managed the recovered craft program infrastructure.
| Date | 1989 |
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Following the call, Bob Echler arranged a meeting with Everett Heinman at CIA Langley, during which Heinman denied any knowledge of UFOs or related programs. The exchange remained a point of UAP research interest for decades. In 2022, when Twitter user RGH_UFOs contacted Heinman and referenced Inman's identification of him as the right person to ask about recovered craft, Heinman did not deny having such knowledge — instead stating only that he was "far removed from that area of work." This 2022 non-denial response is treated by UAP researchers as an ambiguous partial confirmation. The Inman-Echler telephone call is considered one of the clearest documented instances of a senior US intelligence official — with cross-agency access spanning NSA, CIA, NRO, and Naval Intelligence — pointing specifically toward CIA DS&T as the management node for alleged UAP material holdings.