At the end of February 2011, over the central part of Russia, increased UFO activity, aurora borealis in latitudes uncharacteristic for this phenomenon began to be observed, and on March 1, many settlements in the Irkutsk region received reports of a bright flash and roar in the sky
The Ministry of Emergency Situations of the region surveyed the area, but did not find anything that could indicate a major disaster. However, versions continued to emerge one after another …
On February 25, students of one of the schools filmed the UFO on mobile phones
It is important to note that before this event, residents of several areas of the Angara region at once claimed to have seen a UFO. The first such activity was noted in Bratsk (January 1, January 4, January 14, February 25), and on February 25, UFOs were observed in Bodaibo and Bayandai. In the Osinsky region, an object was seen above the forest, which shone with several thousand lamps at once, then it fell and exploded with a flash … “They lined up in such a strip, approximately to the middle of the forest. Like lanterns, in a row,”says eyewitness Nelly Azanova. After the glowing balls appeared, some residents drove to the place where the orbs were landing. But no trace was found. “There was like smoke from them. And it smelled unpleasant, as if the boys had blown up bombs,”says an eyewitness Marina Korotkevich. Apparently, it smelled of sulfur. In the place of local authorities, it would be necessary, just in case, to call a priest,to finally insure …
Incomprehensible objects were seen by Syktyvkar Irina on February 28 at about 21:00 from the ninth floor of a building at the intersection of Lenin and Kuratova streets. Objects of different sizes hung motionless at a distance from each other in the sky over the southern part of the city for quite a long time, one of them blinking red, yellow and green light.
Inhabitants of Volgograd on the night of February 28 could see an unusual picture in the sky - vertical stripes of reddish-gray color that appeared more distinctly, then became paler. According to eyewitnesses living in the Kirovsky district of the city, they observed a glow in the sky around midnight. Of course, Volgograd is far from the site of the explosion of an unidentified flying object, but the Earth still turns! Aurora borealis can accompany, for example, the fallout of cometary or meteorite matter; they were also observed when the well-known Tunguska meteorite appeared.
At 18.00-18.32 (according to various sources), residents of the Ust-Orda Buryat District of the Irkutsk Region saw a bright flash over the taiga and a sparkling object disappearing among the trees, after which a roar was heard, similar to a distant explosion. That evening, reports from eyewitnesses came from the village of Severnaya Osinsky District, as well as from the settlements of Obusa, Ongoy, Barakhal, Khaiga, Kutanka, Khadahan and from the regional center of Osa. All observers described approximately the same phenomenon.
“At that moment I was in the house,” said Pavel Khatashkeev, a resident of the Ongoy village. - Suddenly the room lit up - as during a lightning, a second later there was a clap so strong that the furniture rattled. The first thought is an earthquake! I ran out into the street, and there was already a crowd of people gathered.
Promotional video:
- I drove the cattle home, then went into the hut, started to heat the stove, - says Agrafena Olenova. - I went to the window, and there ka-a-ak will puff! I almost went blind! There was a flash for two seconds. Like a luminous ball. The house shook, I got scared, jumped out into the street, and there the whole village was assembled.
A resident of the Obusa village claimed that he clearly saw a flash over the taiga, very bright, similar to a super-powerful flash from a camera. During the fall, there was a strong explosion and glow. According to residents of the village of Severnaya, the explosion nearly flew out glass in the houses. The fact of the fall is also confirmed by the residents of the neighboring village of Khadahan.
“There are 35 kilometers from us to the North, but everyone saw the strange glow. Then there was a crash, as if something had exploded. I can't say the exact time, but approximately it was between six and seven in the evening, I still thought: “Has the plane really fallen?”, - said a resident of the regional center Osa. In comments to the news on the Internet, other eyewitnesses from this settlement also write, reporting that "there was a bright glow and explosions."
»Residents of the village of Barakhal saw the glow of an unknown flying object followed by a strong pop. Residents assumed that the plane fell. They say that they contacted Vostsibaeronavigatsia, the shift supervisor of the zonal search and rescue center (Novosibirsk), the FSB operational duty officer, the air defense duty officer. These services did not confirm the information about the accident. At the Baikal seismic station, in turn, they noted that there was no earthquake in this area, said the representative of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the region.
“This event caught me at home,” says Vadim Chernoretsky, a resident of the village of Tabatai, located 150 kilometers from Irkutsk. - In our region, due to the proximity of Lake Baikal, earthquakes are not uncommon, but this time it shook very strongly. First, there was a strange growing rustle, then it turned into a roar, the house crackled at the seams, the windows rang, the electricity turned off. I ran to the window and saw the reflection of a ball flying noticeably above the trees. The ball was dazzling white like welding. He disappeared, and soon there was a very strong explosion. " According to the resident, all the villagers immediately ran out of their houses. There they were caught by the sound of a blow. A second later, the area lit up with a bright light. “We were afraid to go home,” he continues. “We called the police, the Emergencies Ministry, but they didn’t tell us anything intelligible. But the fact of the emergency was not denied either."
Localities from which observers saw the flash and heard a loud bang or explosion
The first thought of all was: "another plane has fallen." However, the pilots did not confirm the fact of the loss of the aircraft. Neither civilian nor military aircraft normally fly in this area.
Two days later, the following information appeared in the official press release of the Ministry of Emergency Situations: “On March 2, a helicopter with an operational group of the main department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia in the Irkutsk Region was organized to fly to the Osinsky District, and the area was surveyed. Information about a possible accident on the aircraft has not been confirmed. In total, 9 people were involved, 2 units of equipment, including 4 people from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, 1 unit of equipment. The operational group of the Osinsky ROVD also went to the scene of the alleged incident in the area of the Obus settlement. Policemen did not find any foreign objects on the surveyed territory, the press service noted.
- We interviewed local residents: none of the respondents saw any glow in the sky, people were sleeping at that time, they just heard a noise. And the glow, the lights are the inventions of journalists, - Olga Kontysheva, head of the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations in the Irkutsk Region, cut off. - Rescuers arrived at the scene of the "explosion" and found nothing - no craters, no fallen trees, no traces of any fallen object. According to the military, there were no flights or exercises that day. What exactly the residents of the village heard is not clear.
From that moment on, other versions of what was happening began to appear. For example, they remembered that in Soviet times the Osinsky District was a testing ground for nuclear weapons. A very bright flash, a roar for hundreds of kilometers, "clouds have dispersed" - all signs of an air nuclear test in the taiga. Some insisted on testing a new military aircraft. There was even a version about "very strong thunder" …
“Our telescopes that follow the sky in this area have not recorded any celestial bodies or flying objects,” says Vladimir Lipunov, professor of astronomy at Moscow State University. In general, something explodes here quite often - there are a lot of factories nearby. Only last week there were two explosions. In addition, rockets are often launched in this area, and during takeoff they "lose" the stages, which emit a sound like an explosion. We have a calendar of all launches, now we'll see … No, on that day, not a single rocket took off. There were no supersonic flights either.
The professor suggested that the mysterious object could be a meteor - a rather large celestial body that burns up entirely in the Earth's atmosphere without leaving a trace. Burning up only 10 kilometers from the surface of the Earth, such bodies go unnoticed by telescopes. Or it was a very small meteorite, no more than a kilogram, so the astronomers missed it. Aircraft weighing more than a ton burn up in the atmosphere without a trace. What can we say about small celestial bodies …
Scientists at the Astronomical Observatory of Irkutsk State University are also confident that there was no plane crash. Kirill Ivanov, a researcher at the observatory, told about what exactly inhabitants of several Pribaikal villages could observe on March 1:
- We now know a lot about this case and, judging by the description, presumably it was a meteorite fall. It was a bright fireball, which, one can already say for sure, did not reach the surface of the earth and exploded somewhere in the atmosphere.
The other day the Irkutsk-Kosmopoisk group is planning to visit the Osinsky District for a more detailed survey of eyewitnesses and clarify the details of the fall of this object. If anyone has any information about the circumstances of the sighting of this unknown body or about UFO activity in the area before and after the fall, please write about it here or contact the Irkutsk-Cosmopoisk group directly: vkontakte.ru/club4803855 …
Vitim bolide. It fell in the area of the villages of Mama and Vitimsky, Mamsko-Chuisky district of Irkutsk region on the night of September 24-25, 2002. The event had a great public resonance, although the total energy of the meteorite explosion, apparently, is relatively low (200 tons of TNT equivalent, with an initial energy of 2.3 kilotons), the maximum initial mass (before combustion in the atmosphere) is 160 tons, and the final mass of the fragments is of the order of several hundred kilograms. The epicenter of the fall was discovered by the Kosmopoisk expedition.