Documents / Report
This is a July 28, 1995 report from the General Accounting Office to Representative Steven H. Schiff on its search for government records about the July 1947 crash near Roswell, New Mexico. The GAO found only two records from 1947: a July 1947 history of the 509th Bomb Group and Roswell Army Air Field, and a July 8 FBI teletype. Both describe the object as a radar-tracking or weather balloon. The report also says some Roswell Army Air Field administrative records and outgoing messages were destroyed without any recorded authority.
Results in Brief Reporting Air Accidents B-262046 In 1947, Army regulations required that air accident reports be maintained permanently. We identified four air accidents reported by the Army Air Forces in New Mexico during July 1947. All of the accidents involved military aircraft and occurred after July 8, 1947-the date the RAAF public information office first reported the crash and recovery of a "flying disc" near Roswell. The Na"Y-y reported no air accidents in New Mexico during July 1947. Air Force officials told us that according to record-keeping requirements in effect during July 1947, there was no requirement to prepare a report on the crash of a weather balloon. In our search for records concerning the Roswell crash, we learned that some government records covering RAA.F activities had been destroyed and others had not For example, RA.AF administrative records (from Mar. 1945 through Dec. 1949) and RA.~ outgoing messages (from Oct. 1946 through Dec. 1949) were destroyed. The document disposition form does not indicate what organization or person destroyed the records and when or under what authority the records were destroyed. Our search for government records concerning the Roswell crash yielded two records.originating in 1947-aJuly 1947 history report by the combined 509th Bomb Group and RA.~ and an FBI teletype message dated July 8, 1947. The 509th-RA..~ report noted the recovery of a "flying disc" that was later determined by military officials to be a radar-tracking balloon. The FBI message stated that the military had reported that an object resembling a high-altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector had been recovered near Roswell. The other government records we reviewed, including those previously withheld from the public because of security classification, and the Air Force's analysis of unidentified flying object1 sightings from 1946 to 1953 (Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14), did not mention the crash or the recovery of an airborne object near Roswell in July 1947. Similarly, executive branch agencies' responses to our letters of inquiry produced no other government records on the Roswell crash. According to press accounts from July 1947, Army .i.Ur Forces personnel from RA.~ were involved in the recovery of an airborne object near Roswell. Therefore, if an air accident report was prepared, it should have 1According to Air Force regulation, an unidentified flying object ls an airbor:le object :hat by performance. aerodynamic characte~stics, or unusual features. does not conio!'Tll to known airc~ or missiles. or does not correspond to •.\ir Force definitions of famiiiar or known objects or unidentrned aircraft. GAO/NSL.\D-95-187 Government Records
Report, from the nsa collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 21 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.