SUBJECT: 07/86 WITNESS SEES AIRCRAFT EXPLODE IN AIR FILE: UFO1353 Report #: 198 From: UFO INFO SERVICE Date Sent: 12-10-1986 Subject: BAKERSFIELD, CA CASE TYPE: LRS DATE: 12 JULY 1986 TIME: UNKNOWN CFN#: 0320 DURATION: UNKNOWN WITNESSES: THREE SOURCE: MERCURY NEWS, SAN JOSE, CA -------------------------------------- REDONDO BEACH - Andy Hoyt admits he has no proof - not anymore, at least - that he witnessed the crash of an aircraft that may be the Pentagon's most carefully guarded secret. His sister, Lisa, and her 16-year-old son, Joey, reportedly also saw the plane, but both declined to discuss the alleged incident. Hoyt, an unemployed Redondo Beach carpenter, says he snapped photographs of the plane as it plummeted to the ground in the Sequoia National Forest near Bakersfield. But the photographs were given to the Air Force, Hoyt says, and the Air Force isn't talking. Defense experts, however, say Hoyt's description of what he claims he saw that night fits the most educated guesses of the configuration of the top secret F-19 stealth fighter - a plane the Air Force will not confirm even exists. In a scenario that sounds like a science fiction movie, Hoyt says he and two relatives saw something drop out of the sky and explode into flames on the other side of a hill about a half-mile away. "It seemed like it was something other than an airplane, said Hoyt, 26, who was on a camping trip. "Believe it or not, I thought it was a UFO." Whatever it was, he says, the military has been treating him royally since he called Edwards Air Force Base when he returned home the following Sunday evening and told the Air Force about the photographs. Hoyt says he and his party were driving east on state Highway 178 about 15 miles northeast of Bakersfiled in the early morning hours of July 12 when they pulled over for a brief rest. He was just climbing back into his truck when he saw it. "All I saw were three red lights and a dark image behind them like an upside-down triangle." Hoyt said, adding that each light was at a point of the triangle. He said he pulled a camera from the dashboard of the truck and managed to take two or three pictures before the plane disappeared over the hill. Then, a pair of explosions "lit up the sky like it was daylight out." Contrary to published reports on the day of the accident, Hoyt says, the aircraft did not explode before it crashed. At least one Air Force source has been quoted as saying plane exploded in midair, which could explain why the pilot, who was killed, was not able to eject safetly. "It was definitely not on fire when it came down," Hoyt said. "Why couldn't the guy eject?" After making sure the blaze was reported on an emergency roadside phone, the party continued to its campground north of nearby Lake Isabella. His call to Edwards upon returning home brought a sudden response from the Air Force, Hoyt says. "They took my name and number and within an hour someone had flown down here and talked to me," he said. "They didn't press me, but they wanted to see the film in my camera." The next day, the Air Force officers took Hoyt, his sister and nephew to Hawthorne Municpal Airport, where they flew them to a command post a few miles from the crash site, he says. The visitors were treated to lunch, then driven back up the mountain road where Hoyt said he saw the crash. "They wanted to know what the angle was when it came down," he said. "They used some tool to measure something after we pointed at the spot." After developing the film in Hoyt's camera, he says, the Air Force returned two sets of enlarged prints of the family camping trip - minus the frames that could have shown the descending aircraft. An Air Force officer who interviewed Hoyt and his relatives asked them not to talk to anyone about what they saw, "but said he couldn't force me," he said. The Air Force will confirm only that a plane crashed, killing its pilot. It refuses to divulge what kind of aircraft, the base from which it took off or its mission. Military guards armed with M-16 rifles have sealed off a large area around the crash site. Back home in Redondo Beach, Hoyt says he feels a bit bewildered by all the attention his claims have brought. ********************************************** * THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo * **********************************************