Above Us Only Sky: Mysteries of the Air
The Sky Above Us
Our ancestors throughout history yearned to travel up into the sky, and float among the clouds. We of course are one of the first generations to be able to do what has long been dreamed of from those that came before. They would be green with envy, seeing that we can soar into the clouds.
We have quite a bit of knowledge about the sky above us, however there are certainly gaps in our expertise. And it may well be that we don't know quite as much as we think. Over the decades of flight, their have been more than a few strange tales of the air. These are some mysteries from above.
Ghost Plane
On the calm night of February 27, 1935, an odd thing was seen by over one hundred people who were on the beach, or staying at the Hotel Daytona Beach. The witnesses all claimed to spot an silvery aircraft coming in low with green and red lights on it's wings. The plane crashed into the ocean close to the shore, and right in front of the hotel.
A couple sitting on their balcony even thought the aircraft was going to come through their window before it crashed. Unsurprisingly with so many witnesses, the word spread quickly, and numerous vessels including the coast guard were soon in the area to search just offshore. However all the ships and boats found nothing, not even an oil slick.
Needless to say this did not go over well to the people who insisted on what they saw. The Coast Guard continued to look for any trace of a plane, but nothing was ever found. Did all these folks have a mass hallucination, or did they see a ghost aircraft?
Mid-Air Collisions?
On July 10, 1930, a small private plane took off from the airfield at Aransas Pass Texas, and began to make the trip back to Kansas City. Five businessmen were aboard after spending a fishing vacation in the area. The trip didn't last long. An explosion was heard as the plane entered a dark cloud.
Witnesses including a deputy sheriff watched in horror as the plane tumbled out of the cloud with one wing tearing off. The other wing and the gas tanks quickly followed and the aircraft came crashing to earth. A witness noted that tiny pieces of the aircraft came drifting down over the next few minutes.
It was quickly assumed that the aircraft had been hit by lightning, however there was no sign of fire on the plane. The fuel tanks hadn't exploded either. They came to earth with the rest of the wreckage. Judging by the reports of the witnesses, it seemed almost as if the plane was involved in a mid air collision. The investigators examining the wreckage came to the conclusion the aircraft had not been hit by lightning. But if not lightning, then what did the aircraft collide with?
A similar story would happen a few decades later over the skies of New Mexico. In the pre-dawn hours of 03 Oct. 1955, a B-47 aircraft stopped refueling and detached from the fueler. It dropped a few thousand feet as it suffered numerous malfunctions of it's instruments.
One of the crew ejected and landed safely, although suffering burns. The other two crew members were still aboard when the aircraft exploded in midair killing both. That is the official story.
However the survivor told the newspaper reporters a different story altogether. He stated that the aircraft was “struck in mid-air”, and he it was suck a tremendous jolt that he believed they had hit the ground. When he realized they were still in the air, he ejected. The plane exploded shortly after.
There was no other aircraft near the B-47 when it broke up. However one witness described a “fireball” arcing across the sky towards the plane shortly before the explosion.
Just over a month later, on Nov. 8, another B-47 exploded in mid-air killing all three crew members. Perhaps these aircraft had faulty instrumentation, or some design flaw. It must again be noted however, that ground witnesses saw a “fireball” racing across the sky with sparks coming out from behind it just before the aircraft crashed. Whether that had any relation to the accident is unknown.
Jetpack Man Aka "Iron Man"
One of the most interesting mysteries of recent memory happened on August 30, 2020, when a couple different airline pilots reported spotting a man seemingly flying via jetpack. He was hovering around Los Angeles International Airport when he was sighted at roughly 5000 feet in the air. Needless to say this was highly irregular, however attempts by the FAA and FBI to locate said intruder was met with failure.
The unknown aeronaut made at least 4 more appearances around the area, seen by aircraft crews and air traffic tower staff. Cockpit crews began referring to the lone flier as “Iron Man”. The LAPD and others tried to claim that it was a balloon that was moving around the stratosphere, and not a person at all. It was also claimed to be a drone.
There is video of the jetpack man (as he was also called). And it looks like someone flying around with a jetpack. It's too far off to make out much detail. Whatever it was, it made it last appearance in 2022. Like many of these “high strangeness” type things that pop up from time to time, it disappeared as quickly as it appeared.
