What crashed near Lake Isabella CA in 1986

In july of 1986, in the mountains of Kern county, a flaming aircraft being escorted by to other aircraft F16's, crashed into a mountainside.


I vaguely remember the event in the local media.
The military acknowledged it was thiers and released the name of a pilot but never what type of aircraft.
I had a couple of friends that actually saw the vehicle comming in it passed over their campsite before crashing nearby.

The way he described it, "it wasnt an aircraft on fire, it was fire".

He maintained that the aircraft was completly engulfed in flames, not trailing flames it was flames, just a ball of fire.
My friend said it was so bright that it illuminated the escort aircraft, and that there was no way it was a plane, it was completely engulfed in flames.
They made it to the crash site before the army and airforce showed up ,and it had started a sizable wildfire.
He saw wreckage on the ground an a sizable crater.


The army showed up first, within 1/2-1hr and closed off the area. Over the next several days they scraped off the top couple of feet of soil and took it away in dump trucks.

A couple of years later he took me to the site and you could tell they had removed quite a bit of soil.

I wish I could talk to my friend about it more, but he's now dead from a hit and run and nobody was ever charged.
One of the other people that was there is also dead, a massive heart attack at the age of 29.



So what did really crash near Bakersfield

My list includes
a stealth fighter prototype( the aircraft industry media thinks that is what it was).

Pumpkinseed ( a exp. high speed recon vehicle that used exo-vehicluar combution as propulsion. Once up to speed fuel is injected into the slipstream where it is combuted outside the aircraft)

Or a UFO?

Will we ever know

I found this at www.netwrx1.com...

From: [email protected] (Kerry Ferrand)
Date: Wed, 3 Jan 1996 12:36:26 -1200
Subject: 1986 F-117A crash - UFO report

While I was wading through old UFO reports looking for black triangles
I came across this report which includes a witness to the July 11 1986
F-117A crash. I thought some people here may find it of interest....I
wonder if the guy ever got his photos back. (I should note here that
1986 was 2 years before the F-117 officially existed)

begin text:

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."

cool, thanks for that



My friend was very explict in his assertion that it was fully on fire, in such a manner that no aircraft could have flown like that.






Ok my problems with the posted account of the event are a couple.

1st the guy is driving on hwy 178, a road I know very well.
178 runs up the kern river canyon to lake isabella, the hiway is a narrow 2 lane road on the south side of the canyon. Once you enter the canyon there are only 3 places to pull over in 30 something miles of road way.

The canyon is about 3000 feet deep and only 200' across at the bottom, that leaves only a few degrees worth of sky visible.

If he was in the canyon there is no way he could have taken a pic, you would only have a couple of seconds to react as the aircraft passed over.

If he wasnt in the canyon yet then he wouldnt have been able to see the crash site as it is still almost 20 miles away.
I know where the roadside E phone is located, its in a turn-out about 10 miles into the canyon from the bako side, where the canyon is the deepest and narrowest.
And the actual crash site is a few miles n/w from a old townsite called Keyesville, an awful long ways from the call box.

It was 1am, he just happen to have a camera, set up for night shooting,


I remeber seeing live news reports from the area, and several witesses said it was on fire as it passed over head.

I dont know


I think he was a smokescreen.

Like I said my friend was very adamant that what he saw was on fire and being escorted, maybe the guy saw one of the escorts.


Anyhow it was a very myterious event, and I have seen the amount of soil they took away, they didnt want any pieces to be found.

The report I found is on all the sites I have looked.. I do not know the area so cant comment on his account of where they were and if it was possible to take pictures.. but nicely debunked..

Would not be unfeasible that it was a cover witness report..

Would go further if we can find some of those eye witnesses reports saying they saw it on fire whilst it was in the sky..

If you find anything post it.. cheers

A friend that does Aviation Archaeology has been to the site a few times and has found f-117 parts.
The air-force did a very good cleanup but missed a few small parts that were in a tree.

deepbluehorizon.blogspot.com...

That's cool so the original sighting stands up. I read the report on the website that states a f-117 ditched in 1986 and 1987. Could the parts be from another stealth plane?

punkinworks09, could both witnesses have been correct in their observations? One witness on Hwy178 saw the aircraft right before it exploded (although, yes, I would wonder about the quality of those photos, and maybe he saw the escort as you said), thinking that the plane exploded from impact (the craft had gone from his view).
Your friend and others along the Kern River saw the aircraft on fire after it exploded in flight.
I always thought, bummer to have your camping trip interrupted by that incident. I don't know if I could have packed everything up in a hurry. Hey, remember when campers once again had to evacuate when that woman's campfire got out of control and raced through the campground and resort?


reply to post by ANNED

I love it...in a tree Is my memory correct, in that the skin and other components of the plane were top secret at the time and all debris needed to be picked up?
I recently ran across the book X-Plane Crashes and will be buying it. Glad you mentioned it.

reply to post by ANNED

right on

ok then that wraps that up,

on the subject of aviation archeology, I once stumbled on a crash site on a hillside, the plane was in ok shape seeing as how it had been there for 50 years.
then a few years later i saw on the news that some had salvaged it and took several years to restore it to flying condition

thanks for the input by you all.

reply to post by desert


i wish i could have had my camping trip interupted by the crash of a top secret aircraft

i think your right about the observations, there might be an e-phone at the top of the canyon.
if the guy on 178 was just a couple miles from the top of the canyon, he could have seen it just before it would have passed over a large ridge to the north. that would put it near keysville.

thanks everybody

The crash site is over half way down the canyon.

www.f-117a.com...

35deg 29'36.88"N 118deg 44'23.84W