A Researcher Says the First UFO Really Crashed in Italy in 1933. And He Has Evidence.

Is Italy—not Roswell, New Mexico—the actual site of the first UFO crash on Earth?

An Italian researcher claims to have proof that backs up recent allegations that a crashed UFO was recovered in Italy in 1933. It adds to a growing interest in Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) that now includes elected officials and a NASA panel—even in the face of broad scientific skepticism.

In an interview published by the Daily Mail, Italian ufologist Roberto Pinotti says that fascist dictator Benito Mussolini got his hands on a flying saucer after it crashed on June 13, 1933. But the alien craft, Pinotti said, was captured by American forces at the end of World War II and sent to the U.S.

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Pinotti showed documents to the newspaper that he claims are evidence of both the crash and a secret department set up by Mussolini to study the alleged saucer.

“I and my colleague Alfredo Lissoni began investigating the story of the 1933 UFO crash in Lombardy in 1996 when we received some original secret documents about the case,” Pinotti told the newspaper.

Former U.S Intel Official Alleges Cover-Up

Pinotti’s claims might have gone unnoticed in the sea of UAP chatter, except for the fact that they appear to dovetail with the spectacular accusations of former U.S. intelligence officer David Grusch, who recently claimed that the Italian flying saucer was the first such object recovered by the United States. The ex-National Reconnaissance Office staffer also said that he has evidence of a secret U.S. program that has obtained multiple ‘non-human’ flying saucers.

“I thought it was totally nuts, and I thought at first I was being deceived, it was a ruse,” Grusch said. “People started to confide in me. Approach me. I have plenty of senior, former, intelligence officers that came to me, many of which I knew almost my whole career, that confided in me that they were part of a program.”

The House Oversight Committee is planning a hearing to discuss Grusch’s allegations. Florida senator Marco Rubio has said that other intelligence community members besides Grusch have come forward with “firsthand” accounts of UFO hardware.

The renewed UAP interest doesn’t stop at the alleged Italian flying saucer. An independent NASA panel has been studying the mysterious phenomena, and said in May that a lack of high-quality data and a lingering stigma are hampering research. And a Pentagon report found images containing objects that could not be identified, but did not conclude that the images had anything to do with aliens.

Even with limited research results, some politicians appear eager to find out just what these UAPs are. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., announced a funding boost for the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, tasked with researching and analyzing UAPs, in the Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.

“With aggression from adversaries on the rise and with incidents like the Chinese spy balloon, it’s critical to our national security that we have strong air domain awareness over our homeland and around U.S. forces operating overseas,” the senator said in a statement.

Not So Fast…

Despite Grusch’s claims and separate intriguing videos, the Department of Defense has denied that it has any knowledge of recovered alien spacecraft. And noted UFO debunker Mick West pointed out that Grusch’s allegations don’t add up.

“Dave [Grusch] claims that the US has ‘quite a few’ alien craft that crashed or landed,” West tweeted. “Why, then, is the evidence of their alienness only ‘isotopic ratios’ and ‘strange heavy atomic metal arrangements?’”

Looking into unidentified phenomena is generally a very good idea, but it’s important to remember that all something has to do to be labeled an “unidentified flying object” is fly and be unidentifiable. And “unidentifiable” doesn’t mean “extraterrestrial”—it just means “unknown.” We’re probably not going to be asked to be taken to our leader anytime soon.

Science and Technology Journalist

Sascha Brodsky, a freelance journalist based in New York City and a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, writes about many aspects of technology including personal technology, AI, and virtual reality. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and many other publications. In his spare time, he enjoys cycling and hiking.