To start, this is my very first posting. I have been visiting this site for the last year and have never registered. I have really enjoyed the reading the dialog that takes place in these forums especially the ones that try to look at all possibilities to an issue. That being said, I have an experience of my own that I would like some feedback on possible answers.

I used to be a fishing guide in a very remote part of Alaska; in fact the closest village was 40 miles down river and the population was around 600 (The village was Aniak in case any of you are familiar with the interior of Alaska). In July or August of 1990 or 1991 I had the boat parked in the mouth of where the Buckstock River met the Aniak River. It was sometime in the afternoon and we had been fishing there for around three hours. I was sitting in one of the seats while I watched everyone fishing. I had four fishermen and everyone was fishing from the boat. It was an overcast day but nothing out of the ordinary. This is an area where it was rare to see anyone else during the day. An occasional boat may pass, but that was once a day at most, and an occasional aircraft would pass overhead, but nothing commercial. Like I was saying, I was sitting in a chair while everyone was fishing, and I began to hear a sound coming toward us in the air, similar to what I would imagine a medium sized aircraft without the engines running would sound like. It was making a high-pitched whistling sound along with what sounded like a lot of air being displaced. This would have fit perfectly with an aircraft descending rapidly, however, there was no aircraft to be seen. This sound continued as it got closer and began to pass over our heads. The trees where very tall here and had I seen an airplane, it sounded like it would have skimmed the tree line. It didn’t sound to moving all that quickly, like I said, similar to a mid-sized aircraft. Then we heard the sound of large trees snapping, lots of them. Again, like an airplane crashing in the trees. This crashing sound lasted for about 10 seconds before it was quiet again. We where all very puzzled and not sure that what we had just witnessed could have actually happened. I decided to go into the forest a little ways to see if something had indeed crashed. To be honest, I didn’t go far, I was a little freaked out the more I thought about it. Also, there were lots of grizzlies in that area and that made me a little nervous as well.

I tried to rationalize the possibilities of what could have caused that event, and I have come up with only one: It was an isolated wind burst that moved overhead. But I have never heard wind that sounded like that before or since. If I had closed my eyes, I would have been 100% sure that an airplane had lost engine power and crashed in the woods. It was not a wind day at all, and it sounded like full-grown trees where being snapped like twigs.

Any ideas to what this could have been would be greatly appreciated. I am open to criticism if it will help find a better answer than a cloaked aircraft crashing. Also, if anyone has question I will do my best to answer them.

Thanks.

so you thought you heard an airplane crashing into the woods and you did nothing?

Well Reincarnated, I was 15 at the time and perhaps didn't make the best decision that I could have. Considering that I did not "see" an airplane, I cannot say that it was an airplane. Perhaps you believe you are more mentally equipped to handle such situations but without actually being there, I doubt you can say for sure what you would have done.

You were a fishing guide in charge of your own boat 40 miles from the nearest form of civilization, at 15 years of age?

You came up with the one natural occurrence I could think of.

Obviously, you could have been a witness to some sort of alien crash. Possibly you witnessed a government test or one gone wrong involving invisibility.

I know, Kavik, but what makes you think this wasn't the crash of a cloaked craft? From your description of the event, that's the first thing I thought of. A year ago, I wrote a thread on my forum titled "Unexplained Plane Crash at Guadalcanal" and in that thread I described how men aboard a naval ship had witnessed their reconaissance crash into something invisible in the air. When they found the pieces floating in the water, they found out the plane had been accordioned.

There was also the case at McChord Air Force Base in which a very fast moving craft had collided with an Air Force plane. Although this craft that collided with the AF craft was not invisible, it did result in the death of the 4-man crew.

So because we have cases like this, I really think we could accept the "invisibility" theory also in the story you described. What do you think?

http://ashiana.conforums.com/index.cgi

~ Isis

Welcome to UM.



Kavik... did do something.. just not a lot.

But I don't buy the 15 yr old owning their own fishing guide service, etc..

Although, I'd bite into the invisiblity theory.

None of you that were there reported a possible downed aircraft even after hearing the trees being downed?

me either...

I never stated that I owned a guide service, it was a family run business. We built a lodge on the river in 1985 called the "Alaska Dream Lodge" 35 miles from the village. I was parked about 5 miles from the lodge and yes, I knew how to drive a boat. You would be amazed at how young kids are up there that drive boats. There are no roads so that is there only means of transportaion othere than airplanes. I also have considered the invisibility suggestion, but want to make sure that I cover any other posibilities.

I really didn't think that it was a downed aircraft; I didn't know what to think. I was relying on my eyes to tell me what it was, and being that I did not see a plane, I concluded that it wasn't one. In retrospect, yes I should have told someone, but after telling my Step dad and having him brush it off as nothing, I didn't tell anyone else. The guys I was with didn't say much of anything other than "that was weird". The village is very small and I didn't hear any gossip of a missing plane.

Hey kavik,

In the 1970 and 80's, the Soviet's sent planes to spy on the Alaskan Military capability. They were constantly chased out by the Alaskan air defense force. There were rumors of Soviet Migs being shot down over Alaska despite denials from both sides. Because Alaska is very remote, you most likely saw one of them crashing and maybe heard a parachutist land in the trees. Did you notice a multiple of jets flying around the sky before this weird occurrence? Did you also return to the scene with your family or the authorities? That is just one theory to described what happened.

Hey kavik,

In the 1970 and 80's, the Soviet's sent planes to spy on the Alaskan Military capability. They were constantly chased out by the Alaskan air defense force. There were rumors of Soviet Migs being shot down over Alaska despite denials from both sides. Because Alaska is very remote, you most likely saw one of them crashing and maybe heard a parachutist land in the trees. Did you notice a multiple of jets flying around the sky before this weird occurrence? Did you also return to the scene with your family or the authorities? That is just one theory to described what happened.

Hey kavik,

In the 1970 and 80's, the Soviet's sent planes to spy on the Alaskan Military capability. They were constantly chased out by the Alaskan air defense force. There were rumors of Soviet Migs being shot down over Alaska despite denials from both sides. Because Alaska is very remote, you most likely saw one of them crashing and maybe heard a parachutist land in the trees. Did you notice a multiple of jets flying around the sky before this weird occurrence? Did you also return to the scene with your family or the authorities? That is just one theory to described what happened.

I Made a mistake as I hit multiple responses. Sorry moderators

Could it be a jet, no cloak, say going a couple of times the speed of sound, explaing why you did not see it. I have looked for jets and not seen them, only heard them. I know it may not be usual for a military jet to be flying there, but not impossible. It could just be they are moving them around or something.

I dunno. Taking a stab in the dark but with a torch on

I didn't see any aircraft in the air. It was rare to see anything other than small bush planes. I did try looking again at a later date, but it was hard to walk in because of the overgrowth and willows. I didn't find anything, but I couldn't get very far.

I would think that this is a possibility also, but the sound did not seem to be moving all that fast. If it was higher in the atmosphere than I thought it was, that could be an idea, but the crashing that I heard wasn't very far from our location meaning that it couldn't have been very high in the air.

I think there is any easy rational explanation here that does not require advanced technology or alien aircraft. From your description, it does sound like you heard a plane crash. The fact that you didn't see the plane coming down is not all that surprising. I live close to a military base and hear planes all the time, but I tell you, it is not that easy to pinpoint their location in the sky from the sounds you are hearing on the ground. Usually, when I look up for it I'm looking in the wrong place and have to scan the sky before I find the plane I'm looking for. Could this be the case here? Or possibly the view of the plane was blocked by the treeline?

Ditto to what Razer said. How was the land around you, pretty hilly?

How long did you stick around after whatever it was might have crashed? Long enough that you should have seen smoke?

I agree that you should have probably called the authorities. But, then, being 15 and having that kind of description, I could understand the fear of ridicule or even punishment for making a call like that.

Where we were at was very flat. There were lots of trees around but the area where the two rivers convergered was fairly wide with a good look up river where the sound originated from. I understand and agree that it is often times hard to locate aircraft by their sound, but this was very low, fairly slow and the crash sound came a few seconds after it passed overhead. We stayed there for another hour or so and I never saw smole or any sign that anything had happened.

Be advised that I neither called you a liar nor took you to task for being young and running a boat. I just, "raised my eyebrows" as it were. I was running a boat by myself at that age. I wasn't a guide, in charge of hosting four or five men myself though.

Nor do I think you were obligated to do more than you did as far as investigating and reporting this incident. You may have been in charge of the party, but there were older men there, and none of them presumably wanted to involve the authorities.

if i thought an aircraft had crashed, i would of told someone when i got back to camp or town and eventually notified the proper authorities. did you do that?

Well....you and your fishing party stayed there for an hour or so.........and none of them by your own admission thought anything special happened.
In my opinion...had something crashed through the trees everyone would have freaked.
Maybe you imagined it.
You stayed for an hour and did nothing......nothing happened.
Just my opinion.....and if I ever crash......

I think what everybody is missing here as they take shots at the OP, is that these guys were in a state of unbelief. They had just sensed something pass over their heads and crash-or had they? One of their most important senses denied what their other senses seemed to confirm. In a state of psychic shock, they tended to just ignore what had happened, except for the youngest and most impressionable one of them. Like the boy who'd cried wolf, what do y'all think would have happened when they lead the authorities to a "crash site" of something they had not SEEN crash?''

If all is as was described, it is indeed a strange occurrence.

Kidd.....at age 15 if I had thought a plane or any other craft had crashed and trees fell........I not only would have reported it but so would have my "clients" that were sitting there with me. PERIOD

SwampGator,
It must be comforting knowing that no matter the situation, you would know exactly what to do. I'm sure that you would have written the President personally if you had to, and told him to send whomever he could to find an airplane that crashed but just happened to be invisible. Good plan. As I said, I did tell someone. I told my step-dad. Since you find it more interesting to point out what I did wrong instead of discussing the event itself, perhaps I should take credit for the Kennedy assassination so that you don't run out of material to throw at me. I made a mistake by not taking it further. let it be.

That happened to me!

I think it was a microburst, a not -very well understood phenonoma.

In my case, I heard this tremendous roar of the wind that started to my east, travelled over my head and continued to the west. It was an isolated strong wind, about 70 mph on a windless day. Roof tiles came off and other debris from just the homes in our confined area. I thought at first it was a jet, but without the sound, and flying real low. All I heard was the rushing wind and never say anything. Since I have photographed a UFO in our area, that thought also occured to me.

I always thought that was the most likely answer but I have never heard of that happening before, which is why I came here. I wanted to get some other suggestions as to what it could have been. It's cool to finally hear that someone else has witnessed the same thing. If what I witnessed was a microburst, it would have had to hit at an angle because the trees it was heading towards was not affected. It was the trees a ways further that were breaking.

Was there any smoke? Fire? I find it hard to subscribe to a "cloakled or invisible" aircraft theory.....whether or not something was done about it is, as of this point in time, a bit of a moot point.

If there was no smoke visible, I would have to rule-out an airplane crash...logically speaking, of course....unless the aircraft was so small(a one or two-man aircraft) that the surrounding terrain just swallowed it up.

Interesting.

LMFAO

A special, and much rarer, kind of downburst is a heat burst, which results from precipitation-evaporated air compressionally heating as it descends from very high altitude. Heat bursts are chiefly a nocturnal occurrence, can produce winds of up to 100 mph (160 km/h), are characterized by exceptionally dry air, and can suddenly raise the surface temperature up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49 degrees Celsius), sometimes persisting for several hours.

Downbursts, particularly microbursts, are exceedingly dangerous to aircraft which are taking-off or landing. A number of fatal crashes have been attributed to downbursts.


I did not know that.

Check this out.





A downburst is a column of sinking air that is capable of producing damaging straight-line winds of over 150 mph (240 km/h), often producing damage similar to, but distinguishable from tornadoes. This is because the physical properties of a downburst are completely opposite that of a tornado. Downburst damage will radiate from a central point as the descending column spreads out when impacting the surface, whereas tornado damage tends towards convergent damage consistent with rotating winds.

source

I can't find a link or any other bit of information that states whether or not a specific sound is associated with this phenomenon...considering that the OP stated hearing a sound that was similar to a low-flying aircraft of some sort.

Without the engine running. I take that to mean the rushing of the wind. Whoosh.....

Great find! This could very well be what it was. You are correct, all that I heard was the sound of rushing air and a slight whistle sound. It was localized so at the time I thought that natural wind was out of the question. That was very interesting information you found. Thanks!

I don't think you did anything wrong. If you didn't see a plane crash then it would have been irresponsible to report a plane crash really.

I don't know what it was, but I would bet on a weather phenomenon rather than aliens.

Thank you coldethyl, and I think you are correct in saying that it was most likely a weather phenomenon.

I heard about this awhile back and I have seen some pics of this area after the blow down but do ya think I can find them. I think it was probably a micro-burst, I think that would explain the noise of the wind and possible crashing noise. I was able to find this little bit of information and if anyone can find some pic's of the aftermath, it would be muchly appreciated.

http://ufowisconsin.conforums.com/index.cg...;num=1067391005

I don't buy the ufo theory, but a meteor and a micro-burst ya sure I'll buy that.

Thanks Silver Thong, that article sounds a lot like what I probably experienced. I wish someone had witnessed it though so that more correlations could be made. Thanks for the info.

I still think it was a russian mig that crashed and the pilot landed near your location. the towns people won't hear about it because this incident will be considered classified. My theory to what happened was that a mig was either shot down or experienced mechanical failure. The plane crashed elsewhere and the pilot in his chute laned in the trees in full force thus causing a large noise in the woods. What mosty likely happened after you left was that this pilot was picked up by either the US Military or a Russian rescue team. Alot of people are surprised that Alaska was a cold war hotbed. Ask any long time locals or Eskimos and most will tell you stories about incidents such as yours involving aircrafts shot down.

oh dear

Although I like the mysteriousness surounding this idea, which is still possible, I think I am going to go with the downburst theory. It sounds the most plausible.

Exactly. At 15, I was smart enough to report a crash.
I CALL BS.

Wow...neat...you call BS. On what, may I ask? That the event happened at all? Is this that elaborate of story that it sounds like I am looking for attention? Look, for those of you that seem to be stuck on the fact that I didn't report a crash, I did not believe that an aircraft did crash otherwise I would have got somebody up there. I described exactly what I heard but did not see. I did not know what it was but I knew that it was not an airplane that crashed. I told my step-dad what had happened and he deemed it unnecessary to investigate further. My thoughts have always been that it was either a natural phenomenon or (a little more out there) a stealth craft of some sort (not ours).

It’s not like I told a story about being picked up by Bigfoot and Nessie in a UFO and cruising around the galaxy for green chicks. Considering that this was more than likely a weather phenomenon, I would have looked pretty stupid reporting something that I didn’t even believe it was. Although I was only 15, I still had a level head on my shoulders.

He didn't know exactly what it was, at say 15 would you report a strange sound to authorities? something that sounded like a crash but you had no smoke,fire or sighting of a plane anywhere. I bet you wouldn't report something on an assumption that it may or may not have been a plane crash. I'm sure it would have been reported on the news that a plane had gone missing and if so then report what you heard. At 15 I don't sense any "bs" here.

Sorry. I bet I would have. If nothing else other than curiosity, or perhaps a worry that someone was hurt. Thats just me.

Here's wat I dont get, if it was a craft with a cloaking device y didn't you see smoke or busted tree branches when it crashed? Personally I think its something else but that's a different topic entirely

Roll your eye's all you want, hindsight is 20/20. If there is validity to the story which I think there is then there were four adults along on this trip as well that failed to do the samething you claim you would have done as a 15 year old. Over time maybe he remembers things slightly different. For you to say it's "BS" is like calling someone a lier. So on that note, you claim you would have acted differently because you want to claim some moral highgound I say "bs" I don't know you from a hole in the ground as you don't know anything about the poster of this topic. Man some people around here sure ride tall horses.