During the Second World War, many people disappeared without a trace. In bloody battles on the front lines, such facts could not surprise anyone.
It is another matter when soldiers disappear in an incomprehensible way in the deep rear in front of hundreds of people, for example, as happened with the crew of an American airship.
In August 1942, an airship of the "L-8" type, which was part of the 32nd Squadron of the Navy, carried out an ordinary survey of the ocean in order to identify Japanese submarines. There were two people on board: Lieutenant Ernest Cody and Warrant Officer Charles Adams.
Some time after takeoff, they reported that they had fixed a strange spot on the water surface, which looks like a trace of fuel, and they plan to study it.
The sailors of two floating facilities at once, who were not far from the location of the airship, saw how it circled over the same point for an hour. The aircraft several times made attempts to approach the water, as if trying to examine something.
At 9 am L-8, going against the existing route, got up and headed back to the place of departure. This was told by the above sailors. The crew of the aircraft ceased to communicate.
Air traffic controllers sent out a warning to the pilots approaching landing about a possible meeting with a silent airship. Later, the pilots of the aircraft began to report that they were observing an "L-8" moving towards the Golden Gate. At 11:00, the aircraft suddenly took off and hid in the clouds.
After almost 30 minutes, hundreds of people saw the following picture: the airship, which had lost some of the helium, was descending at high speed. His engines weren't working. Having fit into high-voltage wires, the device fell to the ground in one of the streets.
Promotional video:
Among the witnesses were the police, who decided not to wait for the military, but to independently open the doors of the aircraft. There was no one inside.
When the military arrived at the scene and thoroughly examined the board, it was revealed that the radio was in working order, the pilots' parachutes and personal weapons were located in the required place, like the life raft. The tanks were filled with fuel, the engines remained in good condition, and the suitcase made of lead, which, according to the charter, had to be destroyed at even the slightest threat, stood in its place.
A specially created commission to investigate this case put forward different versions of what happened, but none of them caught on. The pilots wore life jackets that inflated themselves when dropped into the water. But a thorough study of the water area and land where the aircraft flew did not bear any fruit.
The investigation team was at an impasse. Even more strange was the fact that none of the eyewitnesses saw people in bright life jackets falling in the air (if it was assumed that they had jumped out).
The airship, which was not badly damaged in a collision with the ground, was recognized as operational and after some time returned to the US Navy.
Ernest Cody and Charles Adams were declared dead a year later. And the story of their disappearance has not yet been revealed.
SEMENOVA KSENIYA