The Kelso B-25 crash
On 1 August 1947 a B-25 carrying two Army Air Forces officers crashed near Kelso, Washington. Both died. They had been investigating the Maury Island sighting.
Frank M. Brown, a first lieutenant, and Capt. William L. Davidson, both Army air intelligence men, had questioned Harold Dahl on his Maury Island sighting. They collected fragments, and on 1 August 1947 climbed out in their B-25 bound back for California. Skeptoid puts the take-off in the small hours. Eighteen minutes later, it says, the left engine burst into flame and smoke filled the cabin. A crew chief and a soldier thumbing a lift also baled out unhurt, but the flaming wing came off and the aircraft went down near Kelso, Washington, killing Davidson and Brown. A 1947 report in the Tacoma Times said the Army air forces confirmed the bomber was carrying classified material related to discs.
The crash was blamed on an engine fire. Sabotage and shoot-down claims came afterwards and remain unproven. The Maury Island sighting itself is widely considered a hoax, and a Washington State Senate resolution notes the two officers' deaths.
"Davidson and Brown conducted interviews, collected fragments, and prepared for the return flight to California out of McChord Field. In the early hours of August 1, the B-25 Mitchell the two officers were piloting crashed outside of Kelso, Washington, killing both men.[8]"
- Maury Island: The Government's Alien Artifacts, Skeptoid
- Washington State Senate Resolution 8648, Washington State Legislature
- New Historical Article found about Maury Island UFO Incident (Tacoma Times, 4 Aug 1947), The Maury Island Incident (film/museum site)