Editing Aztec UFO Incident — The Skeptical Case (section)

=== The Contamination Problem ===
A methodological problem acknowledged by researchers on both sides is the '''contamination of witness accounts by prior exposure to the published story'''. The Aztec crash was a bestselling book in 1950 and generated substantial press coverage. Any witness account collected decades later may have been shaped by this prior exposure, making it impossible to determine whether specific details originate from genuine independent recollection or from incorporation of published details.

The Ramseys have argued that they specifically sought witnesses who were unaware of the published accounts, and that the consistency of independently gathered details constitutes evidence of genuine independent memory. This methodological claim is difficult to fully evaluate without access to the raw interview data.