Pete Merlin and Tom Kinzel decided to search for the crash site of SR-71A (61-7952) during an expedition to New Mexico in May 2001. Prior to the trip, Pete obtained a copy of the accident report from the Air Force and secured permission from the landowners to visit the site.

They arrived at the Mitchell's ranch on 27 May after stopping at the crash site of another Blackbird, SR-71A (61-7966) that crashed near Las Vegas, New Mexico, on 13 April 1967. Albert Mitchell's son allowed them to camp on the Ranch Property, not far from the ghost town of Albert.

That evening and the next day they explored the debris field as mapped in the accident report. The results were fairly disappointing. Not only had the original clean-up crews made an unprecedented effort to clean up the site, but the ranchers had been collecting debris for years and sending it back to the Air Force. Fortunately, no crash site is ever entirely sanitized.