In the distance, the expedition could see the remains of the Russian MI-8 helicopter, which had tried to hoist a portion of the craft. No bodies were seen. Were the bodies retrieved by the military? The strong electromagnetic fields could have disabled the helicopter's instruments, causing the crash, it was surmised. The heartache of the expedition members was almost too much to bear. There they were, so close and yet so far. They had been able to do what thousands of researchers and scientists could only dream of. They had actually seen a crashed UFO, yet so much more information was needed. The world wide impact of the photographs on the scientific community would have been immeasurable. To have been able to go inside this ship from another world would be the dream of a lifetime. Still, the expedition was highly successful in many ways. They did have their own observances and testimony. They had sketches and drawings. They had an unbelievable story to tell whoever would listen. They had one more thing. The desire to make another attempt to see inside the saucer; to touch the craft, to walk inside of it. And if the craft was not remotely controlled, they could even see a being from another world!

Conclusions

Only a few months after the second expedition had ended, plans were already underway for a triumphant third journey to the crash site. This project would materialize, but the results would be disappointing. It would take until 1998 to gather the funding and personnel to make the trip one more time. Participants in this ill-fated third expedition were: Oleg Murashev, Nelli Slugina, Anton Bogatov, Nikolay Subbotin, Alexey Kostenko, and Emil Bachurin. On August 19, 1998, Nikolay Subbotin and his group left Moscow and traveled first to Almatis to find German Svechkov, who was a leader of the June 1992 expedition. They made contact with Svechkov's son, Vasily, but he refused to tell them where to find his father. It seems that the senior Svechlov was more concerned at this time with the downward turn of the Russian financial situation. He was worried that leaving his business for an extended period of time might cause it to fail completely. The group left without him, but without his funds the mission was doomed. With only meager resources, they were not able to rent a helicopter to take them close enough to the site to make the mission feasible.

They did make the site, but the UFO was gone. Too much time had elapsed, and more than likely, the military had removed it the spring following the semi-successful second expedition. Markers left by the second group were still there, but the craft and the helicopter were gone. The ground had been planed by construction equipment, removing any sign of the original crash. The gigantic UFO of 1991 was not an illusion. It had been confirmed by radar, and seen by four pilots, who described it in detail. The second expedition had found the craft, and drawn sketches and diagrams of it. They had meticulously duplicated the alien markings on its tail. For a few fleeting moments, the hope of the entire UFO community had been achieved. One disappointment after another had made that triumph short-lived. When the third expedition had found nothing at the site, doubt began to arise about the validity of the findings of the second group. There is too much documentation from independent witnesses to dispute the existence of the UFO. Most UFO enthusiasts believe the testimony of the members of

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