Case · UFO Afrinews No 5, January 1992
Maury Island (comparison case cited by Prier Wintle, with editorial résumé)
1947 · Maury Island, near Tacoma, Washington, United States
Outside the region. Hind reprinted this case from elsewhere; it has a file here but no place on the map.
What was reported
Printed as an editorial résumé at the end of Prier Wintle's letter, this sketches the June 1947 Maury Island affair that Wintle keeps comparing to the Kalahari story. Harold Dahl, boating off Maury Island near Tacoma with his fifteen-year-old son, two crewmen and the boy's dog, reportedly saw six doughnut-shaped objects, which he filmed; one seemed in trouble and dropped slag-like material that killed the dog and hurt the boy's arm. His superior Fred Crisman collected residue; an Air Force plane flying samples to Hamilton AFB crashed, killing both pilots. Dahl and Crisman later confessed to a hoax, though many ufologists still believe it. Wintle argues they were either pressured into a hoax admission because the slag was nuclear waste, or were spreading disinformation, and suggests tracing Dahl's son, now about 60.
What Hind made of it
Hind labels it 'reportedly a hoax' and prints it only as background to Wintle's argument.
Explanation offered
Hoax confessed by Dahl and Crisman; Wintle counters with nuclear-waste cover-up or deliberate disinformation
In their words
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Later, Dahl and Crisman confessed to a hoax although many ufologists still believe the case was real.
Cross references
- Case No 21, Kalahari crash
- Condon Committee