RUSSIA’S ROSWELL INCIDENT. THE DALNEGORSK UFO CRASH OF 1986

Additional research and analysis by Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle

DALNEGORSK

The Primorsky Krai region occupies the South Eastern extremity of Russia. Primorsky means "maritime" in Russian, therefore the region is sometimes referred to as Maritime Province. Primorsky Krai is bordered by China, North Korea, and the Sea of Japan. The picturesque town of Dalnegorsk (a former mining settlement) is located in the Primorsky Krai, in a narrow valley by the Rudnaya River, surrounded on all sides by forests and hills. These hills are also riddled with a number of deep caves.

International fame came to Dalnegorsk in 1986, on January 29; at 7:55 p.m. to be precise. Some have called the event that occurred there on that winters night the Roswell Incident of the Soviet Union.

That cold January day an orange-reddish sphere flew over this town from the southeast, crossed part of Dalnegorsk, and crashed at the Izvestkovaya (Lime) Mountain; also known as Height 611 or Hill 611, because of its size. The object flew noiselessly and parallel to the ground. Its shape was described of being near perfectly round with no projections, wings or windows and its color was similar to that of burnished stainless steel.

THE CRASH

Some local witnesses at the time assumed it was a meteorite, while others thought it was something quite out of the ordinary.

One eyewitness, Yevgeny Serebrov, a schoolboy at the time (nowadays he a scientist), mentioned that the object had neither tail nor trail behind it. There was no explosion, only a powerful impact when it hit the mountain. Scientists, who arrived later in Dalnegorsk from Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, used a chronometer to determine that the object moved at 15 meters per second. They told Yevgeny and other boys that meteorites and fragments of rockets cannot fly in such fashion. Source: Shariki iz parallel’nogo mira, article by N. Leskova, published in a Russian newspaper Trud (Moscow), January 17, 2003.

DURATION OF THE FIRE

V. Korotko, editor of the local newspaper Trudovoye Slovo, was near the mountain during the crash of this mysterious object. He stated that a small fire broke out at the impact site but that it burned for only a short while.

Korotko went on to describe the event as follows:

“Out of the corner of my eye I saw something that fell on the mountain. There was an indistinct impact, not reverberating, but quite strong. The noise of the impact lasted less than a second. There was an explosion, and large reddish-white flames. It seemed something was engulfed in a powerful fire. The sphere was approximately one meter in diameter. The fire roared. I observed all of it for about 5 minutes. The fire burned for 1 to 2 minutes, and then stopped.” Source: Inoplanetyane v Moskve article, published in Lipetskaya Nedelya newspaper, issue dated April 7, 2004.

The same article contained more information.

Height 611 is located across from a local bus station (avtovokzal).V Kondakov, a local mechanic, was at the bus station at the moment the sphere flew over the town. He said the sphere was flying so low that it seemed it would cut off part of the chimney of Dalnopolimetall industrial factory. It was round, without any protrusions or holes. It seemingly was made from metal, and its color resembled slightly incandescent stainless steel. Kondakov thought the sphere a shell, a projectile. He did not hear any noises. Kondakov observed how the object crashed down on the hill, but heard no sounds of the impact. The ground at the site of the impact began to burn.

According to Mikhail Gershtein, Russia’s top UFO researcher and author of numerous books about ufology and paranormal phenomena, many eyewitnesses compared the fire burning at the site to electrical welding. The extent of the fire was alternatively described as one to two minutes, about an hour, or even late into the night.

RECOVERY OF THE FRAGMENTS

On February 2, 1986 a parent of one of the children that observed the crash, accompanied by an adult and some schoolchildren, made an excursion to the site. They found a burned tree stump, a hollow that was not deep, and branches that seemed to have been cut off the tree by the object as it descended. There were no large fragments of material like that of an airplane crash.

They collected, very methodically, melted drops of some substance that had a metallic tint, rocks, and a piece of the tree stump. They took everything to the local museum of regional studies. Its director was Valeri Viktorovich Dvuzhilni. The drops resembled soft metal. Several various acids were used on them, but there was no reaction. Then they decided to obtain further scientific opinion from V. Berlizov, a local expert, and a member of the 1947 scientific expedition to the site of the Sikhote-Alin meteorite. V. Dvuzhilni wanted an expert opinion on what this material could be. Source: Dalnegorskaya zagazka, article by S. Glukhov and V. Popov, published in Sotsialisticheskaya Industriya newspaper, issue dated April 5, 1986.

There was no quick reply from the experts, and Dvuzhilni decided to use the other means at his disposal. His group was able to climb the mountain three days after the crash. The UFO, Dvuzhilni told Soviet journalists from Magadansky Komsomolets, broke off a terrace of the rock, about two cubic meters of it, and 10 square meters of snow had ‘evaporated’ at the site. The vegetation had been burnt away and the ground seemed to have been burnt as well.

The newspaper revealed that the team found magnetized fragments of silicic shale. Can you imagine a brick that attracts metal? High temperatures annul magnetism, but in this case it was quite the contrary. This, mentioned Dvuzhilni, once more confirmed that it was not a ball lightning or a plasmoid that arrived in Height 611, but a UFO. Source: Puteshevstviye v Dal’negorsk article, author A. Molchanov published in Magadansky Komsomolets newspaper, issue dated June 24, 1990.

The team was amazed that the area burned by fire was strictly defined, as if separated. A rhododendron bush growing at the very edge of the area burned to ashes remained absolutely untouched by fire. But the rock, composed of light brown silica shale, cracked and fissures were formed, and it turned black as coal. A thin layer of soil was mixed with ashes. Careful examination of the site turned up some thirty grams of an unusual substance. It consisted of solidified droplets of dark colors. Most droplets were tiny, from half a millimeter to two millimeters in diameter, and some were larger, from three to five millimeters.

Dvuzhilni contacted the laboratory of Bor and Dalnopolimetall industrial enterprises. The analyses performed there revealed that smaller droplets consisted of an incredible alloy of lead, and it contained up to 17 elements of the Mendeleev Table.

Large-sized droplets turned out to be compounds of chromium, nickel, and aluminum. Only a diamond saw blade was able to cut through them. Another incongruity was revealed: the alloy of metals had to have crystalline structure but was actually amorphous, like soap. Such amorphous metals can be produced in laboratory settings (using liquid helium to cool melted extremely hot metal), but the crash took place on a naked rocky mountainside.

ANALYSES OF RECOVERED OBJECTS

The objects collected at the site were later dubbed as "tiny nets" or “mesh”, "little balls", "lead balls", "and glass pieces" (that is what each resembled). Closer examination revealed very unusual properties. One of the "tiny nets" contained torn and very thin (17 micrometers) threads. Each of the threads consisted of even thinner fibers, tied up in plaits. Intertwined with the fibers were very thin gold wires. The study of the droplets determined that the distance between atoms in the crystalline array of metal balls was 3.84 angstroms, not the usual 3.86 angstroms, as is usual in metal. Most of all the specialists were amazed by items which were dubbed “net” (“mesh”). They were composed of amorphous carbon. The rare earth atoms there were distanced from each other. Scientists calculated 18 elements in the “net”. The gold content of the “net” was equivalent to 1100 gram per ton (only 4 grams per ton are needed for industrial exploitation of ore-deposit); and silver content was equivalent to 3100 grams per ton. Using electronic microscopes, scientists discovered that the surface of the “net” contained quartz threads of 17 microns in thickness. The threads intertwined and tie together into a precise cord. One of the threads revealed a sort of golden section: an extremely thin gold line somehow placed in the very middle of the “net”. Later, gold lines were discovered in other specimens. When scientists tried to straighten one of the loops, to be able to see it better, the loop disappeared (“jumped”) from view, and they could not find it. Other elements were as jumpy. Alexey Kulikov, Doctor of geological-mineralogical sciences of the Institute of Organic and General Chemistry of the Far Eastern branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, researched the “metal balls”. He said, speaking about the “net”, that it was not possible to understand what it actually was. It resembled glassy carbon, but it was not known how it was created; most likely, super high temperatures can produce conditions to permit creation of such glassy carbon.

The tree stump from Height 611 was no less amazing. Burned wood is pure carbon, wood coal. One side of the tree stump was dull. The other side was shiny, as if covered by lacquer. After some time the scientists realized that it was melted. Carbon melts at 3000 degrees Celsius.

Specialists in the field of physics of metals from Bor and Dalnepolimetall, as well as other scientists, stated that it would be impossible to imagine that any branch of industry would use simultaneously such combination of the Mendeleev periodic table for any purpose.

Having examined 15 local mineral specimens, Russian ufologists discovered fresh signs of “polishing” by hard, solid metal. The polishing was “glassy”, from 0.5 to 4 or 5 millimeters. It was done by a hard body or flying (at the speed of a bullet) metal balls.

Dvuzhilni received a report from the IZMIRAN Institute of Earth magnetism, ionosphere and radiowaves propagation (the Leningrad branch). This institute was involved in the secret Soviet UFO research program from 1978 to 1991 (SETKA AN). They conducted analyses of lead balls from Height 611. The conclusions arrived to by scientists were as follows: the balls were made on Earth, but the lead was not from Dalnegorsk deposit, but from the Kholodnensky deposit, in the North Baikal region. Source: Visota 611: zagadki ostayuts, article by A. Lyakhov, published by Sostialisticheskaya industriya, issue dated July 9, 1989; Inopanetyane dobivayut nash svinets, article by N. Ostrovskaya, published in Komsomolskaya Pravda, issue dated June 9, 2003.

Dvuzhilni was certain that the alien probe that crashed on Height 611 was capable of using metals from Earth deposits for its repair needs. Source: NLO pod mikroskopom, published in Priroda i Chelovek magazine, issue 12, 1989.

UFO SIGHTINGS

SUMMER, 1986

In the summer of 1986, at one of the military airports located in the area, guards were alerted by reports about noise made by jet aircraft engines; it was as if someone started them. Four times in the row the guards checked around the airport. Nothing suspicious was detected, although the noise increased and then subsided. Upon their return to the guard post, the officers observed the vertical ascent of silvery disc from the airfield; it imitated the sound of jet aircraft. Source: Dvuzhilni’s 1988 manuscript Kratkoye opisaniye sobitiy 28 noyabrya 1987 goda nad primorskim Krayem.

OCTOBER, 1987

Viktor Sherstnev was working as the second pilot of an AN-24 aircraft, doing regular flights in the Far East, in the mid-1980s. He recalls that the flight area over the Dalnegorsk region was considered anomalous even back then. Soviet aviators were a little hesitant to fly over the area, especially after the January 1986 crash of an identified flying object. After all, the Dalnegorsk tectonic fault line with changing energy tension is located precisely there. Probably, it was exactly due to the phenomenon that the onboard devices would not function satisfactorily. It is noteworthy that the fact of the UFO crash at the time was not denied even by commanding officers of anti-aircraft units located in the Maritime Province. Pilots are superstitious folk. Therefore, they only partially believed in UFOs. It is better to see something once, than to hear about it a dozen times. The flight on that October 20, 1987 was commanded by Nikolay Ledunov. Sherstnev was the second pilot. There was cargo and no passengers onboard. They were flying from Vladivostok through Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

Sherstnev recalled that Ledunov joked before the flight “So, let’s fly to catch UFOs?”. It was not well received. Sherstnev often recalled that joke.

At 12 hours 46 minutes, with perfect visibility, at the approach to the area of Rudniy-Kavalerovo, Sherstnev started feeling some strange presence. His impression was that someone was looking at him from the side. They were flying at the altitude of 4700-4800 meters, and one can imagine what such premonition means to a pilot. Also, the aircraft commander told Sherstnev that he was depressed. The second pilot automatically looked to the right and saw, at an approximate distance of one and a half kilometers from the AN-24, a gigantic flying cigar-shaped object of a dark-silver color. It moved at the altitude of about two kilometers from the ground, almost parallel to their course. He reported the sighting to the commander. The manner in which the commander received Sherstnev’s report convinced him that Ledunov did not fully realise it till the end. A few seconds later the dark-silver “cigar” at an angle of approximately 35 degrees in the line of ascent, and at the distance of two kilometers, crossed the course of AN-24, and hovered. The size of the “cigar” was about 250-300 meters, not more than that. A greenish light came from the bottom portion of the hull. Sherstnev stated that the “cigar” did not resemble any of the aircraft he had ever seen. It continued moving at a distance from AN-24, and seemingly controlled the flight of the Soviet aircraft. They attempted to contact the ground control, but no one responded to their inquiries. The impression was that they were in some closed space.

Approximately two minutes later the “cigar” vanished, as if it evaporated. But the feeling of its presence never left the pilots. At the approach to Dalnegorsk, the UFO reappeared on their course. At the altitude of about 3000-3500 meters from the ground, it was flying in the area north-east from the town.

Suddenly, sharply ascending, the “cigar” departed toward Rudnaya Pristan’ and Sea of Japan, and almost immediately vanished. Precisely at that moment Sherstnev felt as if a mountain fell from his shoulders. He felt some inexplicable relief. As if by command, their inquiry was immediately acknowledged by ground control and the radio started to function. A year and a half after their encounter with the dark-silver “cigar”, Nikolay Ledunov lost his job due to illness, and one year later Sherstnev left the Civil Aviation service. He does not know why, but he cannot sleep at night when the full moon is out. His body starts aching all over, and fear crawls inside his soul. And for some reason, in front of Sherstnev’s eyes, like a still movie scene, appears that moment, when a dark-silver cigar crossed the course of their aircraft.

Source: K taynam dal’negorskoy katastrofy article, published in Znamya newspaper, article by Pavel Beregovsky, issue 22 dated February 7, 2004.

UFOs OF NOVEMBER, 1987

On November 28, 1987 (Saturday night, around 11:00 p.m.), 32 flying objects had appeared from nowhere. There were hundreds of witnesses, among them military personnel and civilians. The objects flew over 12 different settlements, and 13 of them flew to Dalnegorsk and the site. The unidentified flying objects observed on November 28, 1987 consisted of different shapes: cigar-like, cylindrical, and spherical. Their flight was noiseless, smooth, and at various altitudes.

The Far Eastern territorial department of the KGB conducted their own investigation of the November 1987 events, but could not determine the origin of the flying spheres, “saucers”, cylinders and cigars. The population was told that what they had observed were “atmospheric phenomena”, and the case was closed. Source: V Moskvu preivezli oblomki NLO, article by G. Tel’nov, published in Zhizn’ magazine, issue dated March 27, 2004.

Dvuzhilni offered his own explanation of the multiple sightings on November 28, 1987. He stated the objects came to look for the craft that crashed in 1986 in Dalnegorsk.

The Russian scientist analyzed trajectories of UFO flights; he concluded that in the evening of November 28, a huge ship separated (into smaller crafts). This event took place over a remote part of Sikhote-Alin, in the uninhabited mountainous area, between rivers Malinovka and Bol’shaya Ussurka, south of Mel’nichnogo Village. Pilots of civilian aircraft that had flown over the area reported of fallen trees there (the radius of the fall was dozens of kilometers). Still, the area has not been systematically investigated. Source: Kratkoye opisaniye sobitiy 28 noyabrya 1987 goda nad primorskim Krayem, Dvuzhilni’s 1988 manuscript in possession of Mikhail Gershtein.

AEROSTAT-BORNE RECONNAISSANCE PROBE

Valentin Psalomschikov, Russian expert on aircraft crashes, a distinguished journalist and author of books on paranormal phenomena, stated that the object was manufactured in the USSR, and the technology necessary to produce such objects dates back to 1970's, and that he has similar ultra-thin filaments in his possession.

He stated that since the “powers-that-be” did not admit their relationship to the Dalnegorsk 1986 events; it is possible to assume that the object was aerostat-borne reconnaissance probe that was sent into the USSR from another country. The probe was initially invisible because it was dark outside.

On its approach to Dalnegorsk, the object self-liquidated, when the onboard thermal self liquidator activated (the reasons could have been a barometric device, completion of the programmed tasks, etc). Hence, the heretofore invisible object became a fiery sphere. The object continued its movement with the same reported speed of 15 meters per second, but on its approach to Height 611, as result of the destruction of the system that tethered to the envelope, the object disengaged itself and crashed. Because of the strong wind, small weight, and easy sailing, the object crashed at an angle, and not vertically.

Such apparatuses, to be invisible on radar screens, are manufactured from nonmetallic materials. In such cases, the main construction material is carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer or carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic. The “net” is remnant of the carbon fiber cloth base after the binding was burned; traces of it, represented by white and yellow balls, were preserved in the cords of the “net”. Low weight of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) and ability to use it as heat-resistant “pot” where the contents can burn before the envelope are important consideration for this apparatus. Carbon base of CFRP can withstand extremely high temperatures.

Large quantities of iron, aluminum, magnesium, and phosphorus were, most likely, elements of thermal mixing of the liquidator (not fragments of the construction). In combination with potassium chlorate with potassium permanganate, containing large quantity of bonding oxygen, the elements form a composition that cannot be extinguished by either water or sand. The lead balls were most likely part from the aerodynamic compensation mechanism, containing lead pellets, ejected at attenuation of the flight.

Silicon was the base of semiconducting devices and optics. Lanthanum, yttrium, cerium and other rare-earth elements are used for special optics and light filters, and this can indicate that the Dalnegorsk object was used to make spectrozonal photography of the surface, to reveal details invisible during normal a photo shoot. Most curious was presence of praseodymium. Praseodymium and neodymium are used in solid laser resonators.
 

It is natural that there were power sources onboard; most likely they were most capacious silver-zinc accumulators. Perhaps, there more state-of the-art developments (for example, zinc-air batteries). Electrolytes based on alkali metals are usually used for such batteries. Titanium could be used in some smaller parts, where it would be difficult or impossible to use plastics. Signals from such objects were usually broadcast to a satellite or high altitude reconnaissance aircraft that frequented the area of Soviet eastern border. Hence, presence of electrical circuits of capture and broadcast of video information (cables, radio broadcast equipment); gold wire in quartz covering was used in such technology. Such outer covering is most stable under low temperatures. It is possible that the equipment to capture telephone and radio communications was onboard the object.

It is not correct, according to Valentin Psalomschikov, to state that the ultra-thin gold wire in quartz is extraterrestrial technology. Over twenty years prior to 1989 the technology to produce ultra-thin wires was established in the USSR. The wires were produced from various metals in glass outer covering, extracted straight from the melt. There are also no real difficulties to produce such outer coverings from quartz glass for more melt-resistant metals. Since we cannot cease using wires in radio technology, the thinner is the wire used, the more attenuated is the reflected from it radar signal. The preserved pieces of the CFRO outer covering can be explained by presence of ice crust and snow. When melted, they remove large quantities of heat; therefore the CFRP did not damage soil cover.

The change in properties of surrounding rocks (appearance of surface conductivity, change of coloration and magnetic properties can be easily explained by sedimentation upon the rocks of metallic vapors from thermal mixture the effect upon wood is explained not by unknown radiation, but integration into it of high temperature vapors of large quantity of biologically active elements.

Having explained the terrestrial origin of the Dalnegorsk object, V. Psalomschikov added that the situation with the objects sighted on November 28, 1987 was completely different. Based on numerous witness reports, they were typical UFOs. An object 300 meters long, with “portholes” and “searchlights”, flying at the altitude of 100-150 meters, cannot be defined anything other than extraterrestrial flying apparatus.

O prirode dal’negorskogo obyekta 29 yanvarya 1986 goda, V. Psalomschikov’s manuscript from 1988, in possession of Mikhail Gershtein.

There seems to a consensus of opinion that the Hill 611 crash may well have a conventional explanation, but exactly what remains to be seen. Other researchers tend to disagree of course. It does have its parallels in the West, the Roswell case being one of them, but there are others. Irrespective of this, it is a fascinating case, which is sure to divulge more information and more theories in the years to come.

*While we have described the Dalnegorks Crash in our books, our research of Russian ufology continues, and we publish any additional significant information we uncover, thus updating UFO cases from this huge country and its neighbors in Central Asia, Far East, and Eastern Europe. Our updates, we trust, help others involved in serious UFO research.

Paul Stonehill & Philip Mantle are co-authors of the book:

RUSSIA’S ROSWELL INCIDENT is available on Amazon

Paul Stonehill lives in California, USA and Philip Mantle is from West Yorkshire, England.