Moriches Bay crash claim
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Claimed date | 28 September 1989 |
|---|---|
| Claimed place | Moriches Bay, off Center Moriches, Long Island, New York |
| Claim | A craft was shot down by an experimental "Star Wars" weapon and its occupants were taken to Brookhaven National Laboratory |
| Source | Stories circulated among Long Island UFO researchers; attributed to an anonymous colonel |
| Associated group | Long Island UFO Network (LIUFON), founded spring 1988, chaired by John J. Ford |
| Related claim | Southaven County Park "crash", 24 November 1992 |
| Status | No physical evidence or official records |
| Date | 28 September 1989 |
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Beings & bodies (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| People | John Ford, Ronald Reagan |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 104 |
| Year | 1989 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1989 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 13 |
The Moriches Bay crash claim is a story, circulated among Long Island UFO researchers, that on 28 September 1989 an unidentified craft was shot down over Moriches Bay off Center Moriches, New York. According to the story, an experimental "Star Wars" weapon brought it down and its occupants were taken to Brookhaven National Laboratory.[1][7] The account of the shoot-down is attributed to an anonymous colonel. No physical evidence or official record supports it.[1] The story belongs to a cluster of Long Island legends, alongside the Southaven Park "crash" of 1992 and the Montauk Project, associated with John Ford's Long Island UFO Network. Ford was arrested in 1996 for an alleged plot to poison local politicians with radium.[1][3]
The claim
The MUFON field investigator Joseph Flammer, writing in the Long Island Press in 2018, lists "the alleged shoot-down of an alien craft over Moriches Bay off Center Moriches in 1989" among the Long Island incidents that make his audiences shudder. The others are the Southaven Park crash of 1992 and the Montauk Project.[1]
- The details. The 28 September date, the "Star Wars" weapon, the transfer of occupants to Brookhaven and the anonymous colonel come from the earlier version of this article. That version drew on a text on the Sacred Texts site, which blocked automated access when checked.[7]
- The Stringfield citation. The story is also cited to Leonard Stringfield's crash-retrieval writings, under the title of his 1978 MUFON paper "Retrievals of the Third Kind", at page 449. That paper predates 1989, so the reference is presumably to a compiled edition. Stringfield went on publishing "status reports" on crash-retrieval claims until his death in December 1994, with further reports in 1989, 1991 and 1994.[8][9][10][12]
Stringfield, a former CRIFO director and NICAP adviser, built his reputation on crash-retrieval stories from anonymous sources. His 1978 paper argued that "sufficient data have been amassed to lend support to some of the old retrieval claims".[8][10][11]
The Long Island UFO Network
The Long Island UFO Network (LIUFON) formed in the spring of 1988.[2]
- Leadership. John Ford, a former court bailiff, was chairman. His childhood friend Richard Stout, a former Marine who worked for the Town of Brookhaven, was vice-chairman.
- The hotline. A Newsday reporter met the group in late summer 1988 as it launched a hotline for reporting sightings. Members paid $20 a year.
- Aims. An August 1988 press release said the group aimed to investigate "all aspects of the UFO phenomenon on the Island".[2][3]
The group's members often parked at Sea Breeze Park and watched the sky over Moriches Bay. Stout said they had seen "strange objects" there, but added: "Basically... just lights you see at a great distance... We're not saying it's a flying saucer."[2] Writer Tanner Boyle notes that Sea Breeze Park is only about 13 miles from JFK International Airport and its heavy air traffic. TWA Flight 800 later exploded in the same area, off Moriches, on 17 July 1996.[2]
The group's early years were marked by disputes. In September 1989, the month of the alleged shoot-down, Ford wrote to researchers announcing a "new policy" of letting them see witness case files for a fee: $40 for a folder and audio, $180 with video. Boyle calls it "the death blow" for many members' trust.[2]
Southaven Park (1992)
Ford's best-known claim concerned Southaven County Park in Shirley, as reported by the South Shore Press on 25 May 1993.[4]
- The crash. Ford said that just after 7 p.m. on 24 November 1992 an alien craft crashed in a remote part of the park. Motorists on Sunrise Highway saw what looked like a plane going down, and residents heard rumbling.
- The response. According to Ford, roads were blocked and the fire was handled by the Brookhaven National Laboratory fire department.
- The site. A week later his group found burned ground and bent trees, a higher-than-background radiation reading, and a fence that had supposedly lost its magnetism.
- The video. Ford obtained a poor-quality video showing a reddish metallic object giving off white gas. Uniformed men were seen covering something with a shiny sheet.[4]
Park records showed the park closed from 25 to 28 November. Officials said it had been reserved that week for duck hunting.[4] Ford came to believe that aliens from the crash were held at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and that officials had set "diversionary fires" to hide the truth.[6]
Ford's arrest
In June 1996 Suffolk County authorities arrested Ford, then 47, together with Joseph Mazzuchelli and a third man said to have supplied radium.[3][6]
- The alleged plot. Prosecutors said Ford planned to kill Suffolk Republican chairman John Powell and other local figures by putting radium in their cars and food, "in the hope that over time" they would contract a fatal disease. He was also accused of plotting to burn the party's headquarters.[3][6]
- Charges. Ford was charged with illegal possession of radioactive material, conspiracy to commit murder and criminal solicitation. He believed the officials were part of a cover-up of UFO evidence.[6]
- The radium. Brookhaven officials said the amount of radium found would have taken decades to harm anyone. Ford's lawyer noted that if he had wanted to kill, he owned guns.[3]
- Outcome. In 1997 Ford was found unfit to stand trial and committed to the Mid-Hudson Psychiatric Center. The other two men pleaded guilty. In 2019 Ford was moved to a less restrictive facility.[6]
Time later included the plot in a list of failed terrorist plots, though it misnamed Ford as "Joseph Ford".[5] His case featured in the 2024 Hulu series Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal.[6] A further article on Ford could not be read for this article.[13]
Status
The Moriches Bay shoot-down and the Southaven Park crash remain unsupported by any physical evidence, records or named witnesses.[1][4] Boyle describes Ford's world as "chaotic, paranoid and filled to the brim with conspiracy theories". Those theories ran from the Moriches Bay sightings to alien bodies at Brookhaven and a UFO blamed for the 1995 Sunrise Wildfire.[3]
People and topics
- Strategic Defense Initiative — President Reagan's 1983 missile defence program.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- John Ford — Founder of the Long Island UFO Network.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Ronald Reagan — 40th U.S. president whose diary and speeches touched on space and alien threats.
- Department of Energy — The U.S. department that runs the nuclear weapons laboratories.
On the Timeline
- Vallée on the disinformation campaign (1989) (17 September 1989) — Vallée writes there is a large disinformation campaign around UAP.
- Oechsler–Inman phone call (October 1989) — A NASA mission specialist meets a retired admiral about a group said to manage UAP information.
See every 1989 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Hangar 18 (the legend and 1980 film) — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
References
- "UFO investigator: Long Island sightings soar", Long Island Press (Oct 2018) · longislandpress.com · archived copy
- Tanner F. Boyle, "Radioactive toothpaste and conspiranoia: the strange saga of ufologist John Ford, pt. 2" · tannerfboyle.substack.com · archived copy
- Tanner F. Boyle, "Radioactive toothpaste and conspiranoia: the strange saga of ufologist John Ford, pt. 1" · tannerfboyle.substack.com · archived copy
- Patrick Gross, "Southaven Park, New York, November 24, 1992", UFOs at close sight · ufologie.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- "Top 10 failed terrorist plots", Time · content.time.com · archived copy
- "Where is John J. Ford now?", Sportskeeda · sportskeeda.com · archived copy
- The 1989 Moriches Bay crash claim — Sacred Texts · sacred-texts.com · archived copy
- Leonard H. Stringfield — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Stringfield's 1978 report — Patrick Gross · ufology.patrickgross.org · 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
- 5 facts about UFO enthusiast John J. Ford · thefilibusterblog.com · archived copy
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia article “Leonard H. Stringfield”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
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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