A-12 crash site in Utah

A small pic of the exact aircraft involved. Taken from the Habu.org site.

On May 24, 1963, Ken Collins was the pilot performing a test flight of the CIA A-12 known as Article 123 after taking off from Area 51 that day. Ken stated the flight was pretty uneventful until making a turn to head back when he said that the plane suddenly "didn't feel right". It was an ominous observation as after he had dipped into the clouds and he lost sight of his chase plane, the A-12 would pitch nose up and flip over and then start tumbling to the ground in an unrecoverable flat spin. Thankfully, Ken ejected before the plane hit the ground, but the plane was a total loss, and cost at the time, 35 million dollars (equaling nearly 339 million in today's money).  

The same exact aircraft under construction at the famous skunk works. Pic also taken form Habu.org.

The plane would crash within the western part of Utah, just south of Wendover, west of US Highway ALT 93 and east of the the Nevada-Utah state line border. Being 1963, this was a massive potential security breach for the CIA's new super-secret squirrel aircraft of the time, and was heavily spun in newspapers of the time. Even as recently as 2003, the CIA maintained the crash was an F-105 out of Hill AFB that was carrying a nuclear weapon in order to deter people from visiting the wreck, though even that was covered up by the CIA, as they stated there was no remaining wreckage at the site. Being that it's the CIA, that was all a lie, and there is still plenty of wreckage still at the site today. 

One of the many pictures of wreckage you can find at the Dreamland Resort site's documentation on finding the site and it's modern state. 

I can't really provide all the juicy details of all the excitement of both the crash and the re-discovery of the site more than 15 years ago, but you can read all about them both at the following links. If you want to check out the Salt Lake Tribune for a more detailed story of Ken's ejection from the final flight of Article 123 that is very well written, you can see it here:

https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=51976355&itype=CMSID

For an even more interesting story be sure to read the story by Peter W. Merlin on the Dreamland Resort site about how he tracked down the lost crash site with the help of workers who responded to the wreck as well as working with Ken himself to find it, then check it out here:

https://www.dreamlandresort.com/pete/oxcart_down_6.html

Makes for some very good reading and another interesting addition to Utah trivia/history! Also, for the ultimate in blackbird history and info, head over to habu.org.