Strangers From The Skies - Brad Steiger-pages

Page 69 of 128

Page 69 of 128
Strangers From The Skies - Brad Steiger-pages

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Several theories concerning what happened to the disc have been advanced by the residents of Iguape and by the divers who have gone in search of the object. The most immediate possibility is that it may have been washed downstream. Most of the witnesses to the crash think that this is unlikely. The way the disc plunged into the river, it was probably a very heavy object. Those believing that the disc had come from some point in outer space have suggested that it may have been secretly retrieved some night immediately following the crash. But eye-witnesses to the crash contest this position, pointing out that immediately after the craft hit the water, mud was spewed up which would indicate that it had probably buried itself deep in the silt, making such an operation extremely difficult. Furthermore, any mysterious activity in the alerted Iguape area surely would have been observed by the residents. The remaining possibility, and the one which many people consider to be the most likely, is that the disc is still there! Perhaps it moved with the current underwater, or even under its own power, but it is probably buried somewhere between the banks of the Peropava, still settling to the bottom of the fifteen-foot layer of enveloping, almost impenetrable, mud. With the reports of the witnesses and the evidence of a notched palm tree, the facts seemed to indicate that an unidentified flying disc had had navigational trouble over Brazil and had been forced down in the Peropava River. Whether it was manned or operated by remote control is unknown, but the witnesses agree that it seemed to be moving under its own power when it plunged into the water. It forms another mystery yet to be unraveled. 18. First Cousin to a Lightning Ball? On August 12, 1956, a Russian transport plane was flying through a slowly moving cold front in eastern Siberia. The plane was at an altitude of 11,000 feet at 12:45 P.M. when it entered a thick, rain-bearing cumulonimbus cloud. Then, according to pilot Dubinski, co-pilot Sergienko, and navigator Fedayev, the crewmen saw a "rapidly approaching fireball 25 to 30 centimeters in diameter. It was dark red, almost orange. When it