On May 2, 1998, a garbled message began circulating on the internet, announcing the crash and attempted recovery of a large cigar-shaped flying object in a mountainous region of southeastern Kazakhstan. The message from ufologist Nikolay Subbotin, director of an organization called the Russian UFO Research Station (RUFORS), summarized information forwarded by another scientist, Emil Bachurin, who was apparently reporting from the site of the crash.
Acording to Subbotin, Bachurin had gone to the crash site with a contingent of military personnel and had sent back a hand-drawn sketch of the scene with accompanying hand-written notes. Bachurin had indicated it was impossible to photograph or videotape the scene within a proximity of 500 meters due, apparently, to intense radiation that fogged film and damaged equipment. Bachurin himself reportedly suffered damage to his eyes, and others at the scene reportedly suffered burns to the skin.
Bachurin's sketch has been posted to the internet (see http://www.dkd.ot.lt/hompag/ufo/cigar.jpg) Though all text is in Russian, the sketch itself clearly shows a long tubular object on the ground, broken in half at the middle. In the background are rugged mountains identified as the Tian Shan range, which runs from southwest to northeast along the border between Kirghizstan and Kazakhstan, then into western China.
On the side of the object are several prominent symbols.
According to ufologist Greg Jarikov (greg@pop3.rcom.ru), a RUFORS member residing in St. Petersburg, portions of the text on Bachurin's sketch can be translated as follows:
Title: "The Zeppelin" in Tian-Shan.
Natural boundary "Sh.-Mazar". East gorge.
It is impossible to make photos. Victims exist. Marks are green. [Meaning of this reference is unclear.]
Size is 620x120m. [Jarikov later reconfirmed that the reported size of the object is 620 meters long by 120 meters in diameter -- extremely enormous.]
The central part is broken off, probably by self-liquidator [self-destruct?] unit.
[Other notes include] ...a complete stop of all watches [at] distance 600 meters from object [and] ...almost complete absence of a magnetic field on this distance is noted.
[Also shown in the drawing] ... "a trace of sliding" [apparently evidence that the object slid along the ground].
A few days after the initial messages, Jarikov added important clarifications.
The crash itself is not a new event, he said, although news about it is. The crash reportedly took place at the end of August or the beginning of September, 1991. The first group of military researchers arrived there in August, 1992.
Those people received strong burns and could not approach the object closer than 500 meters, Jarikov said. Efforts to photograph the crash resulted in "complete overlight" on the film [here Jarikov apologized for not knowing the correct words in English. Presumably he meant either total overexposure or fogging of film]. Also, videocamera's have "burned down" and videotape has apparently become brittle and disintegrated in the camcorders at the scene.
Jarikov said that recent visitors to the site have seen the wreckage of a military helicopter at the scene, identified as an Mi-8 with camouflage colors. Jarikov said the helicopter apparently flew too close to the UFO wreckage and was destroyed (cause of destruction is not indicated).
"The path from sliding of object (approximately 800-1000 meters) is well visible," Jarikov wrote. "It should be well visible from space too. The object went precisely from west [to] east, it flew on a very flat trajectory."
"And, it is NOT a mistake: the sizes of object REALLY are about six hundred twenty meters [by] one hundred twenty meters (620x120)," he said.
Jarikov emphasized that the size of the object and the clear ground traces of its crash landing should be easily visible to satellites. Since photos at ground level seem impossible, he says, the Russian researchers are hoping satellite photos will be released that confirm the UFO crash site.
Original file name: CNI - Russian UFO Crash
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