The planes were now unoperational. Their condition was radioed to headquarters, and they were ordered to nurse their planes back to base, and abandon the hunt for the intruding UFO. Radars on the ground continued to track the object, as it made a zigzag course back over the Aral Sea. Mathmatical computations assigned the craft's speed at an astonishing 42,000 miles per hour as it again assumed civilian air space. As the object left the MIGs, the controls on the jets began to return, enabling them to make a safe landing. Flight controllers at Mangyshlak made notification to air force and civilian personnel of the object's projected flight path. They were told that an unidentified craft was traveling through their area, posing a serious threat of collision with other craft. Approximately 45 minutes after the sudden appearance of the UFO, it simply vanished from radar screens. Though shaken from the stirring events of the last three-quarters of an hour, there was a sense of relief among military personnel that whatever or whoever had invaded their airspace and crippled their jets, had left them. This was the end of the giant UFO, or was it?

First Expedition Begins

Although the strange and unusual events of August 28, 1991, brought numerous debriefings and discussion, the threat of the UFO was now passed. What was the enormous craft that had invaded civilian airspace? What was its origin? What was its mission? Was the threat from another country? or another galaxy? These questions were tossed about for a month with only conjecture and speculation offered for an answer. The search for the UFO would now take a dramatic turn. By the end of September, rumors began to be spread about a large object which had crashed into the mountains of Shaitan Mazar. Residents of the villages around Karakol were witnesses to an object of immense size that had met its fate deep in the mountains to their east, in a rocky gorge called "The Grave of the Devil," near the Sary Dzhaz River. These stories became so prevalent, that an expedition was formed to make a dangerous trek up into the deep mountain forests to find this strange craft. Was the story of the villagers real? The expedition was now ready to answer that question.

The group of brave men and women who formed this expedition was made up of experienced mountain climbers, locals who knew the danger of the mountains and woods, and members of the Russian UFO group, SAKKUFON. The leader of this UFO group was the well respected researcher Anton Bogatov, who would also lead the fact finding expedition. Hopes were high that this group could locate the crash site and answer many compelling questions about the large craft. Would they be successful, or would they merely find a meteor, or perhaps a piece of asteroid? The locals, who were descendants of the Mongol race would actually lead the way to the crash site, which would take them through the dangerous snow-covered Tien Shan Mountains.

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