Cedar Breaks radar site crash claim

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Contents 4
Cedar Breaks radar site crash claim
Watertown ("The Ranch") in Area 51 with U-2 flight line and trailer park (ca 1957)
Watertown ("The Ranch") in Area 51 with U-2 flight line and trailer park (ca 1957) Photo: Central Intelligence Agency (see "The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead… · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
Date1966
TopicsCrashes & retrievals (topic), Military encounters (topic), Bases & Area 51 (topic)
PeopleLinda Moulton Howe
TestimonyShellenberger testimony, p. 69
Year1966 in UFO history
Timeline1966 on the UAP Timeline
Sources3

Cedar Breaks radar site crash claim — A radar technician reportedly saw a disc crash at a Utah radar site linked to Area 51.

In September 2006, journalist Linda Moulton Howe reported on her Earthfiles website an account from a former radar technician who said he saw a disc crash at a radar site at Cedar Breaks in southern Utah in 1966. According to Howe's report, the radar facility was built and operated under the direction of Area 51, the secret Nevada test site.

The full account is behind a subscription paywall, and the technician's name hasn't been made public. Radar sites in Utah and Nevada did support classified flight testing at Area 51, where the U-2, A-12 and other secret aircraft were developed, and the Air Force has acknowledged that test flights there caused UFO reports.

No documents or other witnesses support the crash claim. It's best treated as an unverified single-source account.

People and topics

Linda Moulton Howe receiving Emmy Award for Audio Achievement in documentary A Strange Harvest
Linda Moulton Howe receiving Emmy Award for Audio Achievement in documentary A Strange Harvest Photo: Larry W. Howe · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
  • Area 51 — The secret Nevada test site where spy planes and stealth aircraft were developed.
  • Linda Moulton Howe — Journalist and filmmaker who runs the Earthfiles website and has reported many crash-retrieval claims.
  • Earthfiles — Linda Moulton Howe's website.
  • U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
  • Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.

On the Timeline

Illustration of a disc-shaped craft in the night sky
Illustration: a disc-shaped craft in the night sky. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

See every 1966 event on the UAP Timeline →

References

Further reading

  1. Area 51 — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy

This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.

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