1974.08.25
21.00c
Crashed craft
[Location given as “Chihuahua, Mx”]
(phoenix foundation – now defunct)
The Coyame UFO incident first came to light in 1992, when an account of the case was mailed anonymously to a number of UFO researchers in the United States and Europe. The story alleges that a UFO was obtained by the United States military in Mexican territory in a covert operation. A rapid response team was assembled by the US military and intelligence agencies and moved in near the town of Coyame, Chihuahua, close to the US-Mexico border, to obtain a UFO that had crashed with a small civilian plane.
After the report surfaced in 1992, the story of the Coyame UFO incident lay dormant until 2005, when producers of the cable television series UFO Files, shown on the History Channel, created a show based on the report. The show, called Mexico’s Roswell, was one of several episodes about UFO crashes similar to the 1947 Roswell UFO Incident.
On the evening of August 25, 1974, the US Air Defense radar detected an unidentified flying object about to cross into American airspace coming up from the Gulf of Mexico. The object was tracked at speeds of up to 2,500 mph at an altitude of 75,000 feet. Continuing on this trajectory the object would enter US airspace over Corpus Christi, Texas, coming from the Gulf of Mexico.
At first it was thought that the object might be a meteor. However the object was tracked turning and leveling at 45,000 feet, then to approximately 20,000 feet, staying at each level for around five minutes before veering off again. It then reportedly slowed its speed to around 1,900 mph. [They ruled] out a meteor as a meteor would not normally make a 35º change in course and change in speeds in this manner. The unidentified object then began to descend and turn at the same time. The descent was “stepped” and not curved as a meteor would have been.
Two US military radar stations tracked the object while it made its descent. When the UFO disappeared from the radar it was assumed that it had just gone below the radar’s detection range. No-one expected this to be a UFO crash landing. Shortly after detection an air defense alert was called. However, before any form of interception could be scrambled, the object turned to a course that would not immediately take it over US territory.
The object was then tracked further entering Mexican airspace approximately 40 miles south of Brownsville Texas. US Air Defense radar continued to track the object until it disappeared once again from radar near the town of Coyame in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico not far from the US border. There the object suddenly disappeared from the radar screens.
The point of disappearance from the radar screens was over a barren and sparsely populated area of northern Mexico. At first it was assumed that the object had descended below the radar’s horizon and a watch was kept for any re-emergence of the object. None occurred. 52 minutes after the disappearance, civilian radio traffic indicated that a civilian aircraft had gone down in that area. But it was clear that the missing aircraft had departed El Paso International Airport in Texas with a destination of Mexico City and could not, therefore, have been the object tracked over the Gulf of Mexico. The radio interceptions were reported through channels to the CIA. Possibly as many as two additional government agencies also received reports, but such has not been confirmed as of this date.
US intelligence continued monitoring the Mexican airwaves and found that the Mexican authorities had started the search for the missing airplane. At about 10.30 am, a report came over the radio that the wreckage of the plane and that of a second aircraft had been found on the ground a couple of miles away from each other. This second aircraft was circular in shape, in one piece and only slightly damaged. A few minutes later a radio silence on all search activity was ordered by the Mexican military.
Meanwhile, communications were initiated at the highest level of both governments where a request for the US military recovery team to enter Mexican territory to assist in the recovery effort was ignored and flatly denied by the Mexican government.
By 9.00 pm, August 26, 1974, the CIA immediately began forming a recovery team at Fort Bliss, Texas. The speed which this team and its equipment were assembled suggests that this was either a well-rehearsed exercise or one that had been performed prior to this event.
At the same time, helicopters were being amassed in a secured area near the US-Mexican border. According to eyewitnesses, these were three smaller helicopters, probably UH-1 Hueys, painted in a neutral sand color and bore no markings. There was also a larger helicopter, possibly a Sea Stallion. Personnel from this team remained with their craft and had no contact with other Ft Bliss personnel.
Satellite and aircraft over-flights earlier that day photographed the debris moved from both the UFO crash site and the aircraft’s crash site. The UFO had been loaded onto a flatbed truck and the convoy was seen heading south. The US intelligence noticed that the convoy had stopped in a deserted area away from any major population areas or major roads and radio contact between the convoy and its headquarters had ceased. A low-altitude, high-speed overflight was ordered.
Reconnaissance photos taken showed the convoy halted, with truck doors open and two bodies lying in the ground near the trucks. At that point the CIA had to make a quick decision: either to allow this unknown aircraft to stay in the hands of the Mexican government, or to order the recovery team into Mexican territory, supplemented by any required military support, to take the craft.
With the convoy stopping in a deserted area away from any major population area, the CIA ordered the recovery team in to obtain the UFO. It took the four helicopters more than two hours to reach the convoy; what they found would make a lasting impression. When the team arrived at the scene they found that all the Mexicans were dead. The majority of the bodies were still in the vehicles. Members of the US team dressed in biochemical protection suits strapped the UFO onto a cable and hoisted it away with the Sea Stallion helicopter. With the saucer gone, the team immediately turned their attention to the remaining evidence. The plane wreckage, vehicles from the convoy, and the Mexican team bodies were gathered and exploded them with high explosives. In under an hour the recovery team had obtained the UFO and “cleaned up” the scene.
The UFO is said to have been a little over sixteen feet in diameter and five feet high, looking like two upside-down saucers joined together. The disk was silver in color with no visible windows or doors. No means of propulsion could be identified. The craft had sustained some damage in the crash – a hole about a foot across, and a dent about two feet across. It is not clear if anything could be seen “inside the hole.”
When the helicopters reentered US airspace, they proceeded to a point in the Davis Mountains where they landed.
02.25
At 2.25 the next morning they resumed the flight and rendezvoused with a small convoy on a road between Van Horn and Kent. The recovered disk was then transferred to a truck large enough to handle it and capable of being sealed totally. The destination of the convoy reportedly was Atlanta, Georgia. Other reports suggest the UFO was transferred to Wright-Patterson AF Base, or possibly an unnamed base. One possible destination may have been Area 51.
What caused the deaths of the Mexican recovery team is not known. The US team seems prepared for this kind of incident. The one thing they did not do is to transport the Mexican team bodies with them to the US. Either this could have been because they did not want the transfer of whatever killed them to be spread into the US or the order of the day was “to destroy all evidence”.