The government hides crashed alien craft and bodies at secret bases such as Area 51, and leaked documents such as the Majestic 12 papers prove it.
No evidence
The bases are real. The alien claims are not shown.
Area 51 exists and held secret aircraft tests. The famous leaked papers do not hold up. The FBI called the Majestic 12 documents bogus, and the Air Force traced the Roswell debris to a secret balloon project.
Last reviewed: 15 November 20266 sourcesVersion 1.0
Short answer
Area 51, a test site in Nevada, was long left unacknowledged, and a CIA history declassified in 2013 describes it as the place where secret aircraft such as the U-2 were tested [5]. The same history says that U-2 and OXCART flights accounted for more than half of all UFO reports in the late 1950s and most of the 1960s [5][1]. At Roswell in 1947, the debris came from a secret high-altitude balloon project, according to the Air Force report [2], and a 1988 FBI memo called the Majestic 12 documents “completely bogus” [4]. We found no verified document that shows a recovered alien craft [3][6].
What supporters can show
Verified
Area 51 is real, and it was kept secret
Source
The US government long declined to acknowledge Area 51. A CIA history declassified in 2013 describes the test site at Groom Lake in Nevada, where the U-2 spy plane was tested [5].
Shows
That governments keep large secret facilities and deny them.
Does not show
That the secret was alien. The secret was aircraft [5][1].
Verified
Government statements about Roswell changed
Source
In 1947 the Army air base announced it had recovered a “flying disc”, then said the object was a weather balloon. In 1994 and 1997 the Air Force published reports saying the real object was a secret balloon project [2].
Shows
That the first explanations were incomplete, and that the Air Force later admitted a secret project.
Does not show
That an alien craft crashed. Project Mogul balloons were a classified Cold War project, which explains the secrecy [2][6].
Partly verified
Witnesses describe recovered bodies
Source
Some people said decades later that they had seen bodies or a craft at Roswell [6].
Shows
That such stories were told.
Does not show
That they are accurate. They came decades later, differed from each other, and some described events that took place in different years [6][2].
Partly verified
Documents “leaked” to researchers
Source
In 1984 a researcher received an envelope of undeveloped film that showed a memo, supposedly from 1952, about a secret group called Majestic 12 [3].
Shows
That a set of documents circulated.
Does not show
That they are genuine. The FBI described them as “completely bogus” in 1988 [4].
Could not verify
Claims that supporters often repeat and that we looked for but could not confirm in a reliable source.
Reverse engineering of alien technology. Stories of engineers who worked on recovered craft. We found no named engineer with documents, and no technology traced to non-human origin.
“Disclosure” from insiders. Claims by former officials of hidden craft usually come without documents or physical evidence.
What science found
The Majestic 12 papers contain errors
The 1952 “briefing” and the “Truman memorandum” were examined by archivists and investigators. The signature on the memo matches one from a different letter, copied into the document. The papers contain formatting and date styles that were not used at the time. The FBI judged them to be fakes [3][4].
The U-2 and A-12 explain many sightings
In the 1950s and 1960s the U-2 and A-12 flew at altitudes above 60,000 feet, much higher than commercial planes. Early U-2s had a silver finish that reflected the sun at sunrise and sunset, and observers reported UFOs. The aircraft were later painted black [1]. The CIA's own history says such flights accounted for more than half of all UFO reports in those years [5].
Roswell debris came from a balloon project
The 1997 Air Force report concluded that the debris came from Project Mogul, a secret program that used balloon trains to detect Soviet nuclear tests. Reports of bodies were traced to dummies dropped from high altitude in the 1950s [2]. A UFO researcher who had supported the alien account, Karl Pflock, examined the case and concluded that no alien craft was involved [6].
The secret was real but not alien
Governments keep things secret for military reasons. Area 51 shows that secrecy exists. It does not show what is behind it, and the evidence that has come out shows aircraft and weapons tests [5][1].
What is still open
Governments hold many classified files, and their contents become known slowly. Whether any classified UFO files still exist is a question for freedom-of-information requests and historians [1][5].
If this happens to you
If you want to check a leaked document, look for its source. Genuine government documents have archive references, dates, officials who can be named, and copies in other archives. Be wary of papers that come from anonymous senders [4].
Sources
Haines, G. K. (1997). The CIA's role in the study of UFOs, 1947–90. Studies in Intelligence, 40(5). Central Intelligence Agency. Source
McAndrew, J. (1997). The Roswell Report: Case Closed. Headquarters, United States Air Force.
Klass, P. J. (1989). UFOs: The Public Deceived. Prometheus Books.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (1988). Memorandum on the “Majestic 12” documents, which it called “completely bogus”. (As reported in the literature on MJ-12.)
Pedlow, G. W., & Welzenbach, D. E. (1992; declassified 2013). The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance: The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954–1974. Central Intelligence Agency.
Pflock, K. T. (2001). Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will to Believe. Prometheus Books.
Change log
15 November 2026: First publication. Verdict: No evidence.