Interview with Kevin D. Randle, Author of Crash: When UFO’s Fall From The Sky

What got you started in researching UFO Crashes?

A rather simple question that requires a complex answer. Part of it was the Center for UFO Studies asking me to assist with their investigation into the Roswell UFO crash. They wanted someone with a military background because many of the witnesses were retired military and they thought I would better understand some of the things being discussed.

Part of it was the work of Len Stringfield. In 1978, at the MUFON Symposium held in Ohio, Len talked about these crash/retrieval events as he would eventually call them. He suggested that we all might be wise in taking another look at some of the reports rather than dismissing them all out of hand.

Looking at the growing body of information about UFO crashes, and the possibility of finding the physical evidence demanded by so many, sparked my interest.

So, Len sort of started it and then the Center’s investigation came along. As I was working on that, I ran into other, interesting cases.

How many have you been able to document?

That’s difficult to say because for most cases there is some documentation even if it’s just a newspaper article. The best documented crash is the Shag Harbour crash in 1967. Don Ledger and Chris Styles have found many documents created by the Canadian government about the events. That doesn’t mean what fell was extraterrestrial, only that there is a pile of documentation.

The Las Vegas crash has quite file from Project Blue Book. There are two dozen witness statements, including those of a general and an Air Force pilot who said he saw the thing below his aircraft.

So, documentation is not a problem. It’s proving that the events were extraterrestrial in origin. That is where we stumble.

We all know about Roswell, but what is this one from Shag Harbour?

In October 1967, a number of people including teenagers and police officers saw an object in the air, one man photographed it, and they all watched as it plunged into the water. It left some sort of a yellowish wake or residue on the surface of the water. The Canadian and American Navies responded and the object, underwater, might have been joined by a second. It was reported that, several days later, the two objects exited the area… which, I suppose means you could call this an emergency landing rather than a crash.

What it important here are all the documents that Styles and Ledger found relating to the event. You can argue that it wasn’t extraterrestrial, but you can’t argue that it didn’t happen. Too many eyewitnesses and too much official documentation.

No good descriptions of the craft or the creatures though. Just the object in the sky and it falling into the harbour.

How has the government been able to keep this a secret for so long?

The flip answer is that they haven’t. We’ve been talking about UFO crashes since the 1940s.

The real answer is they have been able to control the release of information, they have been successful in limiting the discussion of the events through threats and persuasion, they have lowered the ridicule curtain which means some will be disbelieved, and we have been unable to produce the wreckage or the bodies. They have been very lucky…

Not to mention that there have been very few of these events that turn out to be spacecraft crashes. Most have mundane explanations and that helps keep the real information buried.

The Air Force said that the material found at Roswell was the remains of a highly classified project. Why is that so difficult to believe?

Because it’s not true. Project Mogul was an attempt to put weather balloons and radar targets at a constant level in the atmosphere. The components weren’t classified and pictures of them appeared in the newspapers on July 10, 1947. They were required to announce the launches of the balloon arrays because they could be a hazard to aerial navigation so that information was available. They engineers for Mogul when to Roswell to ask for assistance in tracking their balloons, so the officers at Roswell knew about them. And the name, though we were told was so highly classified that even those working on it didn’t know it proved to be untrue. In the diary of the events, an unclassified document, published by the Air Force, mentioned Mogul by name.

Now, we’re supposed to believe that the officers at Roswell were so dumb they couldn’t recognize wrecked weather balloons and radar reflectors… items that they themselves used, when they saw them.

The real question should be is what is the Air Force hiding after all these years? Why are they trying to redirect our attention?

Who are some of the best witnesses who talk about UFO crashes?

Many of those I’ve talked to over the years have died, but I do have much of what they said on tape. Edwin Easley, who was the provost marshal at Roswell provided interesting information. The members of Colonel Blanchard’s staff in Roswell, the ones we could interview, almost universally said that the crash was alien. There was but a single exception. Patrick Saunders, the base adjutant provided a written statement about the crash, suggesting something of extraterrestrial origin.

You seem to keep coming back to Roswell. Why is that?

Because it is the best documented, meaning we’ve interviewed the most witnesses for the case. It was where UFO policy was set and if we can get to the bottom of the crash, then we’ll have some answers to our questions. If it wasn’t for the Roswell UFO crash, we’d be having a different discussion.

Have you investigated any other UFO crashes?

Certainly. I spent a great deal of time and effort on the Las Vegas crash. I talked to witnesses in both Utah and Nevada. I got their stories on tape. I have done minor work on many others, including one in Minnesota in 2009.

Why wouldn’t the Air Force explanation of fireball be correct for the Las Vegas crash?

Because you need two fireballs, flying in opposite directions entering the atmosphere sixteen minutes apart. You have both Air Force pilots and airline pilots seeing something below their aircraft. You have radar following the object and you have fighters scrambled to intercept it. All of this suggests something other than a fireball.

Do you foresee the government ever telling us what they know about UFOs?

Not really. Not until forced to do so, and then the force will come from outside the government. There will be a landing at a location where it can’t be covered up and the government will then be forced to admit that they have held the answer to a long time.

Crash: When UFO’s Fall From The Sky by Kevin D. Randle, PhD

Randle’s blog, “A Different Perspective,” keeps his readers and fans up to date on the latest news in ufology KevinRandle.blogspot.com.