Aztec UFO Incident — The FBI Hottel Memorandum

The FBI Hottel Memorandum

Overview

The Hottel Memorandum — formally designated as an FBI internal communication — is a single-page document dated March 22, 1950, authored by Guy Hottel, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office. It is the most frequently cited government document in connection with the Aztec UFO incident and, more broadly, with governmental awareness of alleged flying saucer crash recoveries.

Content

The memorandum was addressed to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and summarized a report received from an unnamed Air Force investigator. The relevant passage reads approximately as follows:

*"An investigator for the Air Forces stated that three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico. They were described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet in diameter. Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall, dressed in metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed flyers and test pilots."*

The memo further noted that the source believed the recoveries might be connected to high-powered radar installations in the area that could have interfered with the craft's operating mechanisms.

Differences from the Aztec Account

The Hottel memo's description differs from the core Aztec account in several specifics:

• The memo references three craft and three bodies each (nine total), while Aztec specifies one craft with sixteen occupants
• The craft in the memo are described as 50 feet in diameter, versus the Aztec craft's 99.99 feet
• The bodies in the memo are described as 3 feet tall, consistent with but slightly shorter than the Aztec account's 36–42 inches

These differences have led to multiple interpretations:

1. The memo describes a different event or events entirely
2. The memo is a garbled or distorted account of the Aztec recovery
3. The memo reflects separate crash events from the broader pattern of 1947–1948 New Mexico incidents

Official FBI Position

The memo was released publicly through the FBI's FOIA reading room. When it attracted renewed attention following the launch of the FBI's online Vault in 2011, it became the most-accessed document in the FBI's entire public archive.

The FBI's official position, stated in 2013, was that the memo:

• "Does not prove the existence of UFOs"
• Represents "a second- or third-hand claim that we never investigated"
• Had been released publicly decades earlier and was not new information

Significance to the Aztec Case

Proponents of the Aztec incident's authenticity cite the Hottel memo as government documentation — however indirect — of awareness that disc-shaped craft and small humanoid occupants were being recovered in New Mexico. The memo's specific reference to high-powered radar as a possible interference mechanism is particularly significant in the context of the AEC's documented experimental radar installations in New Mexico, suggesting that the Air Force investigator who filed the underlying report was drawing on specific technical knowledge of the region's infrastructure.

The Memo's Uncertain Provenance

The Hottel memo is a hearsay document — Hottel was not himself a witness to any recovery, but was summarizing information received from an unnamed Air Force investigator who was in turn reporting on claims from another unnamed source. This multi-level hearsay makes it impossible to trace the document to any specific event or location with certainty.

The FBI itself noted this explicitly in 2013, and the memo's status as unverified secondary reporting is not disputed by serious researchers on either side of the Aztec authenticity question.