11:54 AM MST on Friday, April 20, 2007

By JACK PENNING / KGW

PORTLAND - It was a mysterious, secret government mission. It ended in a fiery plane crash, and a crash site that was all but unknown. Almost 60-years after that plane went down, a curious explorer has found the wreckage, and is now trying to uncover its secrets.

Jim Greean says he has been looking for the wreckage from the 1947 crash near his property near Kelso for 10 years.

Hundreds have searched the undisturbed corner of the Cascade foothills, about 25-miles to the east of Kelso, Washington. But for the last six decades, they found nothing. Newspapers from August 1, 1947 describe the crash of the Air Force B-25 bomber, as its left engine caught fire, and severed the plane's left wing. But as the deep forests of the Northwest had grown, they had hidden the crash site.

The real story, it turns out, wasn't on the front pages of those newspapers from 1947. It was buried deeper, where reporters said the plane's crew members were "flying disk" investigators, searching for UFOs, and carrying a payload of "top secret material." One newspaper reported that "material" included pieces of flying saucers, being taken to California for examination by the Air Force.

The lure of alien evidence has drawn hundreds of explorers to the area, with its steep slopes, deep canyons, overgrown ferns, and moss-covered trees. Jim Greean had been searching for the last ten years, concentrating on the higher hills surrounding the area. Jim didn't even think of the possibility the plane might have crashed into a ravine.

Last Sunday, Jim was hiking along Goble Creek, following its narrow channel as it rushes towards the mighty Columbia River. It was along that Creek, a glint of sunshine caught his eye.

"I looked down and there was a piece of silver looking metal. I had a shovel and I touched it and it was metal, so I slid down the bank and it was the first piece of that plane I found," Jim said. "I started going back up the Creek and it was full of metal. It was like finding gold! I finally found it!"

Jim pulled dozens of pieces of debris from the mud and muck alongside the Creek. Many of the pieces were mangled, some ripped in two by the sheer force of the impact, and some charred, "This almost looks like it's black from being burned." Many more pieces of the plane, Jim left behind. "There were pieces sticking out and I just couldn't pull them out. I'm going to have to go out and dig them out."

Some of the pieces of the wreckage will go on display at Seattle's Museum of Mysteries. Still, Jim didn't find any signs of alien life, or any pieces of flying saucers. He doesn't necessarily buy all the hype, "Spacecraft parts? I don't know about that." But Jim says he's anxious to discover the plane's secrets, now that he's finally found the long lost crash site.

http://www.fox11az.com/news/topstories/sto...n.2ab50abb.html

This sounds like that X-Files episode with the French wreckage recovery crew and the black liquid alien. Anyway, there's not much to reply to, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Yes, that's true, Hewa. I'll certainly provide updates if I find any.

This would supposedly be connected with the Murray Island incident that Kenneth Arnold was involved with.

But there is some confusion here.



At the time the Papers reported that the "Classified Material" was recovered from the wreckage and returned to McChord Field.

Here's a snippet from the story ran by the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday, August 3, 1947

"McChord officials, however allowed no one to take pictures of the wreckage until the 'material' had been removed and returned to McChord field."

Interestingly Kenneth Arnold barely escaped this incident with his life, when he attempted to fly home his engine stopped working at only 200 ft after takeoff but fortunately he was able to make an emergency landing. Apparently someone had tampered with the fuel line.

It's very probable that the Maury Island incident was a hoax. The material that was supposedly ejected from a UFO closely resembled slag from a nearby smelter and some bits of riveted (?) white metal. There were also many discrepancies in the story which led Arnold himself to suspect a fraud.



That's not exactly correct.


Bold mine.


Edit for typos

It's commonly accepted that this incident was a hoax. That is all that can be said. Note that the Air Force never subjected the 'classified material' to independent testing.

That doesn't mean I support the legitimacy of the Murray Island incident.

That being said a real historical mystery does exist surrounding this incident. Note that that the only two people who died were seriously investigating the UFO mystery. Also note these two men by all accounts had potential physical evidence in their possession at the time of their deaths and the crash itself was highly mysterious. One of the men who survived said he was literally thrown out of the Plane. i.e. He didn't bail out on his own volition.










Excuse me, but if I posted, " Apparently someone had tampered with the fuel line."

And you posted that Arnold wrote five years after the fact, "...there was only one person who could have shut that fuel valve off -- and that was myself."

How is that not exactly correct?

You do know that Kenneth Arnold "washed his hands" so to speak of the UFO Phenomena after this don't you?

We may never know who tampered with his fuel line, but apparently someone had tampered with the fuel line."

I agree that the plane crashed under seemingly mysterious circumstances. Hopefully, further analysis conducted on the debris can shed some light as to what cause the engine to ignite.




Respectfully, we already know what happened. Arnold concluded that he was the one who shut off the valve. Mistakes happen to the best of us.

With all due respect, "We" do not know what happened. Considering the highly suspect circumstances, considering Arnold almost lost his life here, considering he didn't claim to directly remember this, and considering that at the time he stated that 'it must have been him' he had already washed his hands of the entire ordeal and it was five years after the fact, then "We" really don't know what happened.

You yourself pointed out how much of an experienced flier Arnold was and he never shut off his fuel valve before or after. Considering that everyone involved with this case ended up dead or missing except Arnold who luckily made an emergency landing and survived???

IMO it's all a bit much to just shrug your shoulders and say mistakes happen, and conclude that "We" know what the facts were given the circumstances involved here.

I'm simply going by what the man himself wrote.



I never stated this. Read my first post again.



You are in error. Fred Lee Crisman, the man who initially told Ray Palmer about the debris, did drop out of sight for a while, but re-emerged in the 60s and became involved in several political scandals.



Again, I'm going by what Kenneth Arnold stated. However, I have no problem if you choose to continue to see a mystery where none exists. You are entitled to your opinion.

Here's an example, it was five years ago that I bought a used car. I owned for about a week before I accidently wrecked the car.

Ask me if I remember changing the oil or doing anything at all with that car?






That's right. I didn't insinuate that you stated "he never shut off his fuel valve before or after". That was my statement. What you did was quote from an unknown source that stated " a man with thousands of hours of airtime, a pilot who knew many planes inside and out, a specialist in a particular field of hazardous flying."




My statement isn't worth nit picking to this extent.




How about this, as a Historian and researcher that has researched both the early Modern period of the UFO phenomena and the early Military involvement, I can tell you there is a bit of mystery here. This runs much deeper than simply the Murray Island incident. The fact is that Davidson and Brown ( the two Intel officers who died ) were independently investigating the UFO Phenomena. They were the only casualties in the crash and were in route with potential physical evidence. Their investigation died with them and we all know that the OTHER investigation at the time was "batted" down by Gen. Vandenberg for lack of PHYSICAL EVIDENCE.

Look at this snippet from The San Francisco Chronicle Sunday, August 3, 1947.

"The officers were getting pretty hot on something." Rankin said, " I wouldn't be surprised if something had happened to them."

( Rankin being a Northwest Pilot who had been interviewed for four hours by Davidson and Brown before their fatal flight.)


So from my POV as a Historian and researcher that looks at the BIG PICTURE here, the entire story has not been told. If you want to chalk all this up to co-incidence then be my guest. As I said there is a lot more to this story than simply the Murray Island incident.

You seem to be jumping to a lot of conclusions here.

First, I was responding only to your statement where you infer that someone tampered with Arnold's fuel line. If you are as well read a historian on the UFO phenomenon as you claim to be then you would have recognized my source, which is the book UFO Exist! by Paris Flammonde (it's included at the end of the quote I provided).

As to your car example, that is a faulty argument. Kenneth Arnold nearly CRASHED and DIED because of the fuel valve being shut off. I think it's safe to say that he gave the incident a lot of thought before he reached his conclusion. I find it curious that you choose to ignore the man's own statement as to what he believes occurred; blaming it on bad memory.

Lastly, I never said that I didn't find the B-25 crash and the death of Brown and Davidson mysterious. Nor, did I say (excluding Arnold's near crash) that all of the incidents have been satisfactorily explained as coincidence.

We on the same page now?

If it was an aircraft on a mission of such of high priority and secrecy the USAF would have never lost it.