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The Disappearance of Flight N3808H


TheMacGuffin

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You're probably familiar with the disappearance of Frederick Valentich and his Cessna aircraft while being followed by a UFO over the Bass Straits between Australia and Tasmania, but have you ever heard of a similar incident that occurred near Puerto Rico?

At 6:10 P.M. on June 28, 1980, Jose Maldonado Torres and his friend, Jose Pagan Santos, took off from Los Americas International Airport in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in an Ercoupe aircraft marked N3808H. The Ercoupe was owned by Santos' father Jose Pagan Jimenez, an Aero Police Officer for Puerto Rico. They were bound for home in Puerto Rico.

At 8:03 P.M. the Las Mesas site and several aircraft picked up radio transmissions from N3808H:

"Mayday, Mayday, Ercoup ochero cero, eight, zero, zero, Hotel. We can see a strange object in our course, we are lost, Mayday, Mayday."

An Iberia Airlines Flight IB-976 en route from Santo Domingo to Spain responded to the Mayday and received a reply:

"Ah we are going from Santo Domingo to ah San Juan International but we found ah a weird object in our course that made us change course about three different times we got it right in front of us now at one o'clock, our heading is zero seven zero degrees… our altitude one thousand six hundred a zero seven zero degrees… our VORs got lost off frequency…"

Iberia Flight IB-976 then relayed a message asking from San Juan Center asking N3808H to turn on their transponder.

N3808H replied that the Ercoup was not equipped with a transponder. At 8:06 Iberia IB-976 asked for their call sign and estimated position and received this reply:

"Right now we are supposed to be at about thirty-five miles from the coast of Puerto Rico but we have something weird in front of us that make us lose course all the time I changed our course a second (unintelligible) our present heading right now is three hundred we are right again in the same stuff, sir."

They were not heard from again. At 8:12, the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range verified the last radar position of N3808H as thirty-five miles West of Puerto Rico.

A search that included Santos' father was then mounted which centered on this last radar position. It was discontinued after two days when no trace had been found. No trace was ever found.

http://www.ufocasebook.com/n3808hpuertorico.html

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You can listen to recordings of the actual "Mayday" messages from this plane here.

http://www.bermuda-triangle.org/html/ufo_incidents.html

At 6:10 P.M., Jose Maldonado Torres and his friend, Jose Pagan Santos, left the Dominican Republic in an Ercoupe marked N3808H. They were bound for home in Puerto Rico. At 8:03 P.M. dialogue was picked up by several stations and aircraft. For a limited time only, the narrative in the icons below has been replaced by the actual audio of this strange Mayday. It is transcribed completely in Into The Bermuda Triangle By Gian J. Quasar.

clearpixel.gifclearpixel.gif

(If one notices the courses Torres claims to be flying, one notices how erratically he was trying to avoid the object, another indication of his panic than the tenor of his voice. If this is not the case, the drastically alternating compass readings he transmits may be indicative of a frequently reported phenomenon in the Bermuda Triangle: compasses going berserk--a phenomenon also noted during UFO encounters.)

Having the advantage of a last radar position, the search for this aircraft was quick and thorough, concentrating in its last known area. However, nothing was ever found. No ELT signal was ever picked up by any station, and no explanation was ever given for the “weird object.” Jose Pagan Jimenez, the owner of the plane (and the father of the passenger, Jose Santos), was an Aero Police Officer for Puerto Rico. He flew many over flights of the ocean, including the last and most poignant in his own helicopter in vain hopes of finding his son. The search was then discontinued with the typical “negative results.”

There is really no easy explanation for such incidents as the two above. Unlike the lurid and bogus press accounts by hucksters and grandstanders who describe in detail “Flying Saucer” encounters, when the real UFO thing happens, the pilots are incapable of describing what is really going on and exactly what kind of object it is. That something genuinely unusual happened seems proven by the tragic results of such encounters. The true incidents, because perhaps the grave results are not conducive to ratings, are quickly glossed over.

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This video also has a section at 19:44 about the disappearance of the plane, including a UFO detected on radar at the same time at the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range in Puerto Rico. It give off no transponder signal, nor is there any evidence that the plane ever crashed into the ocean. It was just gone, never to be heard from again.

*snip*

Edited by Saru
Video removed for copyright reasons
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Pilot had 200 hours total time, 10 in an Ercoupe, not instrument rated. A bit green.

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strange

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Yeah only believe in what you read,thats a real good start !LoL!

I dont get what you mean

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According to the Iberia Airlines plane that was in contact with the young men in the missing plane, they were trying to evade and escape from the UFO, even flying around 300 degrees, but they couldn't get away from it.

As in the Valentich case in Australia, they also heard a "metallic" noise just before the plane disappeared.

http://nicap.org/docs/FSRV43No4_JorgeMartin.pdf

It also seems that their plane was not the only one to vanish in this area after a UFO encounter, including an Air National Guard F-104 in 1968, that literally vanished from radar and in front of eyewitnesses. It was there one second and gone the next.

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i listened to the mayday link. i have to say stories like this always send chills thru me. i put myself in the pilots situation and cant help but wonder the fear they were facing. same with flight 19 and the rescue plane that went missing. i sure would like to know if they just ended up in the ocean or something really caused them to disappear.

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yeah that's a bit weird I think the twilight zone actually made a episode on this. it was a good episode but anyways I think the airplane is lost in time and then in the near future the plane will reapper

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i listened to the mayday link. i have to say stories like this always send chills thru me. i put myself in the pilots situation and cant help but wonder the fear they were facing. same with flight 19 and the rescue plane that went missing. i sure would like to know if they just ended up in the ocean or something really caused them to disappear.

Yeah I cant imagine a more horrible way to die plus Im deathly afraid of heights, so I would not do good in this situation. :no:

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yeah that's a bit weird I think the twilight zone actually made a episode on this. it was a good episode but anyways I think the airplane is lost in time and then in the near future the plane will reapper

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that. LOL

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Seems to me during the course of the investigation, the object in their path was downplayed. Or just ignored.

I get the feeling "they" know more about the fate of the aircraft than "they" are saying.

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I dont get what you mean

Its only a start to read,then one actually must research ,with factual evidence,backed up by even more proof,second opinions,ect.Than one can at least have a educated Idea of a event. Otherwise its all just a sighting,story,dream. Science lives in the Here & Now. the Tangible facts reality of said facts.

Thats all ! :clap:

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Pilot had 200 hours total time, 10 in an Ercoupe, not instrument rated. A bit green.

It's impossible for a new pilot with very little experience to misidentify an object, and crash. Completely out of the realm of possibility. Aliens had to have been behind it.

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It's impossible for a new pilot with very little experience to misidentify an object, and crash. Completely out of the realm of possibility. Aliens had to have been behind it.

You're wrong about this since the UFO was also picked up on radar, and disappeared almost immediately after the plane did.

You should become more familiar with these UFO cases before trying to comment on them.

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Mc-G have you ever been to P.R ? its a wonderful place Lots of Pork to eat ! And the Dish to die for . Go before they tear it down ! As for E.T`s must be a base near by !

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It's impossible for a new pilot with very little experience to misidentify an object, and crash. Completely out of the realm of possibility. [...]

Especially when deprived of the visual cues flying in the dark and over the ocean.
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Especially when deprived of the visual cues flying in the dark and over the ocean.

Yes, except that if you read the actual reports there is no evidence at all that he crashed; he was just gone.

Even the device that was supposed to go off if the plane crashed never did so, and the aircraft just vanished without a trace.

Edited by TheMacGuffin
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Yes, except that if you read the actual reports there is no evidence at all that he crashed; he was just gone.

[...]

Remind me, how long S. Fossett was searched, and when crash site was found?

In case of 1980 event we are talking about the ocean, 35 miles north of Mona island. From material you posted it is evident that pilot was making prolonged turns- thats a recipe for spatial disorientation (see The Graveyard Spiral) and, consequently, impact, After impact plane could have just sank, leaving no trace.

[...]

Even the device that was supposed to go off if the plane crashed never did so, and the aircraft just vanished without a trace.

Here are few facts about ELTs (see Tables 1-3). Do I have to comment?
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Remind me, how long S. Fossett was searched, and when crash site was found?

Here are few facts about ELTs (see Tables 1-3). Do I have to comment?

No, because you have no proof of that, either. That contributes nothing to this actual case at hand.

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<snip>

and by the way.. Happy New Year :D

Happy New Year!!! :)

Cheers,

Badeskov

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No, because you have no proof of that, either. [...]

While yes, I don't have proof, but there is even less proof plane/crew were abducted/kidnapped by alienz or whatever fantasy you believe in.
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While yes, I don't have proof, but there is even less proof plane/crew were abducted/kidnapped by alienz or whatever fantasy you believe in.

There is proof that he was being chased by something and was trying to avoid it, but there is none for what you're suggesting.

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