What happened
Dahl said that from his boat he saw six very large doughnut-shaped aircraft, one of which spilled metal debris onto the beach. Crisman claimed to have collected samples. Two Army Air Forces officers who investigated died when their B-25 crashed on the way home. Ruppelt later called it "the dirtiest hoax in UFO history," and an intelligence summary said the pair hoped to sell the story to a pulp magazine.