White Sands blown-window crash claim (1948)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 4

| Date | 1948 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Beings & bodies (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| People | Leonard Stringfield, Linda Moulton Howe |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 40 |
| Year | 1948 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1948 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 4 |
White Sands blown-window crash claim (1948) — An anonymous source claims a disc crashed at White Sands with its occupants dead from a blown-out window.
This account describes a disc that crashed at or near White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico in 1948. According to the story, the craft was largely intact, but its small occupants were dead, apparently because a window had blown out and they had decompressed. The source adds that the government bought the surrounding land to keep the site secret.
The story comes from the crash-retrieval reports compiled by Leonard Stringfield from 1978 into the 1990s, based on informants he identified only by initials or not at all, to protect them from official reprisal. Later retellings, including on Linda Moulton Howe's Earthfiles website, repeated and expanded it. No documents, named witnesses or physical evidence have been produced.
White Sands was the main U.S. rocket and missile test range at the time, home to captured V-2 launches, early guided missiles and high-altitude research balloons. Several crash stories from the region have been tied by historians to those programs. A 2007 report in the University of New Mexico's student newspaper about a "cryptic video" said to point to a White Sands crash generated interest but no confirmation.
People and topics

- White Sands — The New Mexico missile test range.
- Crash retrieval — The alleged recovery of crashed non-human craft by governments.
- Leonard Stringfield — Former Air Force intelligence officer and NICAP researcher who collected anonymous crash-retrieval accounts from 1978 to 1994.
- Linda Moulton Howe — Journalist and filmmaker who runs the Earthfiles website and has reported many crash-retrieval claims.
- Earthfiles — Linda Moulton Howe's website.
On the Timeline

- Truman's oral UFO briefings (1948) — President Truman reportedly asks for spoken-only quarterly briefings on UAP research, with no records kept.
- Albert Collins metal samples claim (1949) — Scientist Albert Collins claims he studied strange recovered metal samples that the Army later took away.
See every 1948 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Cryptic video may point to White Sands crash — Daily Lobo · dailylobo.com · archived copy
- Linda Moulton Howe — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Earthfiles — Linda Moulton Howe's news site · earthfiles.com · archived copy
- earthfiles.com · earthfiles.com · archived copy
Further reading
- White Sands Missile Range — 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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