Andrew Kissner and the 1947 crashes
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Date | 1994 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Nuclear & missile sites (topic), Military encounters (topic) |
| People | Andrew Kissner, Steven Schiff |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 119 |
| Year | 1994 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1994 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 3 |
J. Andrew Kissner, a former New Mexico state representative from Las Cruces, wrote an unpublished manuscript in 1994 arguing that U.S. military forces in southern New Mexico shot down several "flying discs" in 1947 and that the discs may have been linked to a wave of deaths that year. His ideas reached a wider audience through a presentation by journalist Linda Moulton Howe at the 2004 UFO Crash Retrieval Conference in Las Vegas.[1]
The manuscript
According to Howe, Kissner's manuscript, titled Peculiar Phenomenon: Early United States Efforts to Collect and Analyze Flying Discs, was based on years of private interviews with former employees of White Sands Proving Ground, the Naval Research Laboratory, Atomic Energy Commission laboratories, military officers and defence contractors. Kissner shared his information with New Mexico Congressman Steven Schiff, who in 1993 asked the General Accounting Office to search for records about Roswell; its 1995 report found that Roswell Army Air Field's outgoing message records for 1946–1949 had been destroyed.[1][2][3]
Kissner's claims
Kissner argued that a series of events beginning with a V-2 rocket test at White Sands on 15 May 1947 led to the crash and recovery of at least two, and possibly four, discs, brought down by anti-aircraft fire or surface-to-air missiles from Fort Bliss, Texas, or by fighters from Alamogordo. He tied this to contemporary newspaper reports: the White Sands commander blamed "peculiar phenomena" for the erratic flight of the 15 May V-2, and on 29 May 1947 another V-2 went off course and crashed near Juárez, Mexico, which Kissner claimed was really a secret missile strike on radar targets. His source at White Sands, a senior officer who died in 1998, reportedly said the rocket had been joined on radar by an unknown target. Kissner also counted more than 600 aircraft crashes worldwide between May and July 1947 and suggested, while admitting it was unproved, that the discs might have contributed to deaths among military personnel and civilians.[1]
Radar sites
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Howe said Kissner also researched secret early radar stations protecting Los Alamos, built from late 1947. As a legislator he helped have the surviving El Vado radar site, north of Los Alamos, added to the New Mexico historic register around 2000.[1]
Assessment
Kissner's sources were never named, and the account reached the public second-hand, through Howe's conference paper. No records support the shoot-down claims, and newspapers at the time reported the V-2 incidents as test rockets going astray.[1][3]
In the testimony
The testimony cites: 2nd Annual UFO Crash Retrieval Conference Proceedings, November 12-14, 2004 Las Vegas,Nevada.
People and topics
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Andrew Kissner — Former New Mexico legislator who looked into the 1947 crash stories.
- Steven Schiff — New Mexico congressman who asked the GAO to search for Roswell records.
- General Accounting Office — The investigative arm of Congress.
- Roswell Army Air Field — The bomber base at Roswell, home of the 509th Bomb Group in 1947.
On the Timeline
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- Arthur Lundahl and presidential briefings (1994) — Researcher Grant Cameron says the CIA's Arthur Lundahl may have briefed presidents on UAP.
- Edward Dudgeon and the Philadelphia Navy Yard (1994) — A Navy veteran tells Vallée about his time at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
See every 1994 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Linda Moulton Howe, "UFO crash retrievals: U.S. government policy of denial", 2nd Annual UFO Crash Retrieval Conference Proceedings (Nov 2004), Internet Archive (PDF) · archive.org · archived copy
- Steven Schiff — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- GAO, "Government records: results of a search for records concerning the 1947 crash near Roswell" (NSIAD-95-187), GovInfo · govinfo.gov · archived copy
Further reading
- Laurance Rockefeller — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Los Alamos National Laboratory — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Sandia National Laboratories — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- 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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