Laredo UFO crash claim (1948)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 1948 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic) |
| People | Leonard Stringfield |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 40 |
| Year | 1948 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1948 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 9 |
The Laredo UFO crash is an alleged 1948 incident in which a large silver disc, chased by military jets, is said to have crashed about 30 to 38 miles south of Laredo, Texas, just inside Mexico, and been recovered by U.S. personnel along with a badly burned occupant. No documents or named witnesses support it, and it is regarded as one of the weakest crash-retrieval stories.[1][2]
The story
In the commonly told version, U.S. personnel crossed the border, recovered the wreckage and found a body about four and a half feet tall with a large head. Versions differ: one says four officers watched the crash and the recovery of bodies 38 miles south of Laredo in August 1948; another gives 7–8 July 1948 and a single body. One account traces the story to an NBC affiliate in Chicago that received it from a source in Army security.[1][2]
Stringfield
Researcher Leonard Stringfield, a former Air Force intelligence officer and NICAP member, publicised the case in his paper "Retrievals of the Third Kind", presented at the 1978 MUFON symposium in Dayton, Ohio. His source was an anonymous retired colonel.[2][3]
Assessment
Researcher Patrick Gross, comparing the versions, suggests the different dates may reflect a confusion between the date of the event and the date of its report, or two different stories, or that there is no truth in the information at all. Grisly photographs said to show the burned occupant have circulated since the 1980s; most investigators regard them as images of a crashed aircraft's pilot, misattributed or hoaxed.[1][4]
Later use
The Laredo crash was folded into later conspiracy narratives: John Lear's 1987 ParaNet statement listed it alongside Roswell and Aztec among supposed crash recoveries.[5]
In the testimony
The testimony cites: Retrievals of the Third Kind presented at MUFON 1978, Leon Stringfield, p7.
People and topics
- Leonard Stringfield — Former Air Force intelligence officer and NICAP researcher who collected anonymous crash-retrieval accounts from 1978 to 1994.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- NICAP — The leading U.S. civilian UFO group of the 1950s and 1960s.
- MUFON — The largest civilian UFO organization in the United States.
- Crash retrieval — The alleged recovery of crashed non-human craft by governments.
On the Timeline
- Pretty memo on the Horten brothers (1947) (16 December 1947) — A U.S. Army officer reports locating the German Horten brothers, designers of flying-wing aircraft.
- Research and Development Board dismisses the discs (1948) (31 January 1948) — A Pentagon research board publicly dismisses flying saucers as mirages and mass self-hypnosis.
See every 1948 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Patrick Gross, "Laredo, Texas, 1948", UFOs at close sight · ufology.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- "Laredo, Texas UFO crash", NOUFORS · noufors.com · archived copy
- Patrick Gross, "Stringfield's 1978 report", UFOs at close sight · ufology.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- Leonard H. Stringfield — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- John Lear — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- UFO crash-retrieval accounts — Sacred Texts · sacred-texts.com · archived copy
- Leonard Stringfield's status report at the 1978 MUFON symposium — Podcast UFO · podcastufo.com · archived copy
- Retrobituaries: Leonard Stringfield — Mental Floss · mentalfloss.com · archived copy
- UFO Crash Retrievals: Status Report I — Goodreads · goodreads.com · 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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