Post by Graveyardbride on Mar 22, 2014 11:19:50 GMT -5
Phantom plane crashes are a relatively recent phenomenon, but there have been several cases reported. The scenario usually goes something like this: Witnesses see a plane going down, often in flames. They hear the crash and feel the ground shake as the plane impacts the earth. Sometimes smoke and flames are seen and people smell spilled fuel. Upon investigation, however, no sign of a crash is evident. Not only is there no fire or wreckage, but no record of a missing or delayed flight is cataloged. So what are these people seeing? Following are five such crashes that have never been explained:
Plane Vanishes in Long Island Sound. People in Westbrook, Connecticut, were amazed Wednesday morning, January 15, 1997, when they heard that a single-engine plane went into a nose-dive toward the waters of Long Island Sound ... and then vanished. According to the newspaper The Day, “The Coast Guard, state Department of Environmental Protection, two rescue helicopters, fire departments from Westbrook, Old Saybrook, Madison and Clinton, and some marine patrols and private boats searched 100 square miles after a man reported he had seen a plane dive into the water. Daniel Bowes of Meetinghouse Lane was having a cup of coffee at about 7:30 a.m. at West Beach on Salt Island Road when he saw a plane flying low over the water, according to Ralph Buck, a captain of the Westbrook Fire Department. He told authorities it looked as if the plane took a nose dive, though he didn’t see a splash, Buck said. No airport in the area reported any planes missing, according to state police Lt. Cliff M’Sadoques.” At 4 p.m., the Coast Guard called off the search. No trace of any aircraft was ever found.
Post 83 Mystery. On November 29, 1996, the day after Thanksgiving, a Miami Township, Ohio, resident was unloading groceries from his car and as he walked into his house, he was startled by a mysterious loud noise and vibration. “The ground shook, and my house vibrated,” commented the gentleman during an interview from his living room three weeks later. “It sounded like two concrete slabs crashing together. I could feel the shock of it. My windows and shades even rattled for about 30 seconds. I’d say that the sound shook the house between 7:30 and 8,” the witness added. “About a half-hour or so later, the Franklin Police Department showed up checking around for an airplane crash.”
Later that same night, a visit to the Franklin Police Department to enquire about the Franklin search resulted in conflicting information. “I believe your witness is mistaken,” Lieutenant Massey said. “Our search and rescue operation didn’t begin until 9:07 p.m., which was in response to the county-wide advisement of a possible plane down in the area.” The search and rescue mission was enormous and was conducted by several police agencies from the Warren and Montgomery County areas.
The search began at 8:49 p.m. when the Miami Township police headquarters received a telephone call from the FAA Flight Service Station located at the Dayton International Airport. Apparently, Rescue Coordination Services advised the Miami Township department of the detection of an ELT beacon (Emergency Locator Transmission), which had originated from an area two miles west of Dayton General Airport. Oddly, the ELT signal was not received locally, as would be expected, but rather was detected by orbiting satellite.
Once the rescue operation was enacted, the search crews raced into an area west – and later south – of the Wright Brothers/South Dayton General Airport. The reasoning behind the initial change in search location was because the ELT signal was evidently changing position, initially appearing approximately 15 miles to the northwest of the Wright-Brothers Airport, and then mysteriously tracked to a distance of in excess of two miles west of the airport. At 9:17 p.m., foot units from Springboro and Miamisburg detected the profuse smell of hot burning rubber. Strangely, it was at a third location on State Route 741 that another resident reported hearing an explosion between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m. There was no physical contact indicating an aircraft emergency resulting in a crash and as far as is known, no debris was found.
The entire state of affairs concerning the mystery ELT signal, loud booming and crashing sounds reported by independent witnesses from two locations, the visual observation of an object with one red light, the uncertain chain of events at Post 83, the radar track announced to the police agencies by the Dayton International Airport, the smell of burning rubber, the subsequent denial of certain reporting procedures by the DIA (which were later found to have occurred), the lack of log entries maintained by DIA operators, the subsequent inquiries as to how the calls were handled by C.A.P., and the involvement of Langley in announcing this to Flight Services are issues that remain unresolved in this tangled, complicated drama.
Phantom Crash in Butler County. “Butler County, Ohio, deputies discontinued a search yesterday afternoon for a plane, which reportedly had crashed in Reily Township near Imhoff and Indian Creek Roads late Wednesday night,” read a newspaper report in the August 13, 1976, issue of The Cincinnati Post. “Deputies said an amateur radio operator heard what he thought was a distress call from a plane believed to be flying from Oxford to Cincinnati about 11 p.m. About 1:45 a.m. yesterday, George Mosley, 1203 Azel Avenue, Hamilton, his son and two other boys became separated in the same area while coon hunting. During the separation, the boys said they saw a white flash in the sky at treetop level, then heard screaming and a crash. Airports in Hamilton and Butler County had no record of any small craft filing a flight plan during those hours. Deputies used a plane and walked the area in search of a downed plane Wednesday night until fog set in on the Reily area. The search was continued yesterday morning and discontinued after nothing was found.”
The Ghost Plane of Dark Hollow. November 18, 1955: The first reports were of extensive search parties combing the mountainous region of Dark Hollow, Pennsylvania, looking for a plane believed to have crashed. The search began after Dale Murphy, civil defense coordinator in Cumberland County, said he received reports from 10 GOC members of either hearing or seeing a plane, “probably in trouble,” flying at an altitude of approximately 1,000 feet. One spotter said she saw it go out of sight behind a hill, then heard something like an explosion. However, checks with various air control agencies failed to turn up any reports of either a plane missing or in trouble. Air-sea rescue planes were dispatched by Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts to aid ground crews in the search. The planes were requested after two flares were sighted over a deep ravine in Dark Hollow. But the aerial search by the Air Force and Civil Air Patrol along with almost 300 firemen, police, civil defense workers and volunteers found no trace of a crash. But the persistence of flares renewed the searchers’ efforts. On the 20th, yellow flares were reported at 1:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. At 9:30 that night Murphy ordered sirens blown on all fire equipment in the region. Fifteen minutes later, another flare arched into the sky. Finally, on November 22, the search was halted and the “ghost plane” became a legend.
Mystery in Montana. Three women near Ovando, Montana, approximately 50 miles northeast of Missoula, reported seeing an airplane trailing smoke with objects that looked like parachutes floating in the air. A ranch woman told officers she saw a “board-like object” fall from the plane. Despite freezing temperatures and four feet of snow, Sheriff Ed Barrow and a deputy conducted a ground search. They were joined by a ski-equipped plane which flew over the designated area, but there was no sign of wreckage or possible survivors. Two days later, hope of finding the crash site was renewed when a boy living near Ovando reported seeing an explosion on the side of a hill near his home. He described it as a “big explosion” with red and yellow flames. The time and general location provided by the boy matched those of the three women, officers said. Yet, Malmstrom Air Force Base officials at Great Falls and civilian and CAA authorities all agreed no planes, military, commercial, or private were missing. On February 18, Carl Schirmer, coordinator of the Montana search and rescue team announced, “There is nothing warranting any further search. The sheriff went up where the disturbance was reported to be seen and could not find a thing.” (ORBIT Newsletter, Vol. 3, No. 1, April 6, 1956.)
Sources: The Cincinnati Post; US Air Force; Stephen Wagner, ParanormalPhenomena; ORBIT, and UFO Roundup.
Phantom Crash in Butler County. “Butler County, Ohio, deputies discontinued a search yesterday afternoon for a plane, which reportedly had crashed in Reily Township near Imhoff and Indian Creek Roads late Wednesday night,” read a newspaper report in the August 13, 1976, issue of The Cincinnati Post. “Deputies said an amateur radio operator heard what he thought was a distress call from a plane believed to be flying from Oxford to Cincinnati about 11 p.m. About 1:45 a.m. yesterday, George Mosley, 1203 Azel Avenue, Hamilton, his son and two other boys became separated in the same area while coon hunting. During the separation, the boys said they saw a white flash in the sky at treetop level, then heard screaming and a crash. Airports in Hamilton and Butler County had no record of any small craft filing a flight plan during those hours. Deputies used a plane and walked the area in search of a downed plane Wednesday night until fog set in on the Reily area. The search was continued yesterday morning and discontinued after nothing was found.”
The Ghost Plane of Dark Hollow. November 18, 1955: The first reports were of extensive search parties combing the mountainous region of Dark Hollow, Pennsylvania, looking for a plane believed to have crashed. The search began after Dale Murphy, civil defense coordinator in Cumberland County, said he received reports from 10 GOC members of either hearing or seeing a plane, “probably in trouble,” flying at an altitude of approximately 1,000 feet. One spotter said she saw it go out of sight behind a hill, then heard something like an explosion. However, checks with various air control agencies failed to turn up any reports of either a plane missing or in trouble. Air-sea rescue planes were dispatched by Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts to aid ground crews in the search. The planes were requested after two flares were sighted over a deep ravine in Dark Hollow. But the aerial search by the Air Force and Civil Air Patrol along with almost 300 firemen, police, civil defense workers and volunteers found no trace of a crash. But the persistence of flares renewed the searchers’ efforts. On the 20th, yellow flares were reported at 1:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. At 9:30 that night Murphy ordered sirens blown on all fire equipment in the region. Fifteen minutes later, another flare arched into the sky. Finally, on November 22, the search was halted and the “ghost plane” became a legend.
Mystery in Montana. Three women near Ovando, Montana, approximately 50 miles northeast of Missoula, reported seeing an airplane trailing smoke with objects that looked like parachutes floating in the air. A ranch woman told officers she saw a “board-like object” fall from the plane. Despite freezing temperatures and four feet of snow, Sheriff Ed Barrow and a deputy conducted a ground search. They were joined by a ski-equipped plane which flew over the designated area, but there was no sign of wreckage or possible survivors. Two days later, hope of finding the crash site was renewed when a boy living near Ovando reported seeing an explosion on the side of a hill near his home. He described it as a “big explosion” with red and yellow flames. The time and general location provided by the boy matched those of the three women, officers said. Yet, Malmstrom Air Force Base officials at Great Falls and civilian and CAA authorities all agreed no planes, military, commercial, or private were missing. On February 18, Carl Schirmer, coordinator of the Montana search and rescue team announced, “There is nothing warranting any further search. The sheriff went up where the disturbance was reported to be seen and could not find a thing.” (ORBIT Newsletter, Vol. 3, No. 1, April 6, 1956.)
Sources: The Cincinnati Post; US Air Force; Stephen Wagner, ParanormalPhenomena; ORBIT, and UFO Roundup.
