Fred Crisman & Harold Dahl

The Maury Island incident began on June 21, 1947, when Harold Dahl claimed that while boating near Maury Island in Puget Sound, Washington, he witnessed six doughnut-shaped objects in the sky, one of which rained down metallic debris onto his boat, injuring his son and killing his dog. Dahl's employer, Fred Crisman, reportedly visited the site and also collected debris.

The story reached publisher Ray Palmer, who contacted the Army Air Force. Captain William Davidson and Lieutenant Frank Brown of A-2 Military Intelligence at Hamilton Field, California flew to Tacoma to investigate. On August 1, 1947, they departed McChord Field in a B-25 bomber carrying a box of the alleged debris. Shortly after takeoff, the left engine caught fire and the plane crashed near Kelso, Washington, killing both Davidson and Brown. Two other passengers had parachuted to safety before the crash.

The Air Force attributed the crash to engine failure, which was not uncommon in B-25 aircraft. However, the timing—coming during the height of 1947's UFO fever and just weeks after the Roswell incident—fueled conspiracy theories. Paul Lantz, one of the survivors, later stated that the box of debris was aboard when the plane crashed.

Some researchers have classified the Maury Island incident as a hoax, noting that Crisman was a figure of questionable credibility who later appeared peripherally in JFK assassination conspiracy theories. Others maintain that the deaths of Davidson and Brown—the first military personnel killed while investigating a UFO report—remain suspicious. The FBI's file on the case was heavily redacted, and the full circumstances of the crash have never been publicly explained to everyone's satisfaction.