In the rolling hills of southern Indiana are several huge tracts of wilderness land know as the Hoosier National Forest. These areas comprise more than 400,000 acres and consist of enormous stands of hardwoods, cedars, and pines. The forests are adorned with large lakes, caves, sinkholes, springs, and streams. Hiking, camping, boating, hunting, and horseback riding are among the many recreational activities pursued here. Certain wilderness areas within these forests are considered so rugged and primitive that only foot traffic is permitted.
On April Fool's Day (major clue?), transcripts of an intriguing chat line dialog began circulating through the InterNet. This dialog, dated as Sunday, March 31, 1996, occurred between three individuals, one of whom was ostensibly making inquiries about how to find investigators of the paranormal. The inquiring keystrokes purportedly belonged to a chap who identified himself as "ALindy," a producer and photographer for the NBC affiliate television station (WTHR-13) in Indianapolis, Indiana. Mr. ALindy, at the urging of the other two chat line participants, began to describe a most unusual news assignment he had been a part of the night before. He claimed that around 10:00 PM on March 30, he was part of a news team sent to the Hoosier National Forest to cover the crash of a small plane. During the course of that news coverage, he allegedly perceived strange and suspicious situations and behavior among both witnesses on the scene and officials performing the forest search. These oddities in conduct, he claims, led him to the uneasy conclusion that something far stranger than a plane crashed in the Forest that night.
The Following information was derived from a conversation that I had with DNR Conservation Officer, Steve McClain (April 22, 1996). Officer McClain guided Forest Service search operations at the Hoosier National Forest during the following incident. -Michael A. Frizzell
On Saturday, March 30, 1996 at about 8:50 PM, a few miles N. of Lake Monroe, Indiana, Jake Watson (pseudonym) stepped out of his isolated cabin to survey the night sky. He immediately noticed a small twin-engine plane with its landing lights on at low altitude and descending several miles south of his location. From his vantage point the plane was beginning to dip below the tree line. He called his wife to take a look and they trained their eyes skyward. Within sixty seconds of the plane's disappearance they were startled to see a "fireball" and five seconds later heard an explosion.
Jake phoned local authorities to report a possible plane crash. His report was taken quite seriously because it was well known that Jake was a retired aircraft pilot. By 9:30 PM fire fighting equipment from several local companies as well as patrol cars from the Monroe and Brown County Sheriff's offices had converged on a fire observation tower, south of Lake Monroe, to study the terrain for signs of trouble. At about the same time, the Indiana State Police got to the scene and they were soon joined by U.S. Forest Service police and Department of Natural Resources Conservation Police (in talking with Officer McClain, I pointedly asked him if the FBI or any other government intelligence agency was present during the incident. He replied that the FBI was not present and only those agencies mentioned above were on the scene).
In addition to Jake's account, other people in the Forest quickly corroborated the crash scenario. Several fishermen around Lake Monroe and some campers south of the Lake also reported a fireball and explosive report.
Observations at the fire tower yielded no clues. So, using all the available witness information as to where the fireball was seen, Forest Service officials quickly narrowed the possible crash site. They selected a 3 square mile section of remote forest area near Browning Ridge Road and Salt Creek. This area is among what is known as the Charles C. Deam Wilderness, a rugged, desolate tract that covers over 12,000 acres south of Lake Monroe in Jackson, Brown, Lawrence and Monroe counties. (In "ALindy's" controversial chat line dialog, allegations were made that the entire search area had been closed to the public during the course of the search operations. I asked Officer McClain about this point. He stated that no portion of the Forest had been closed or otherwise restricted to the public during the entire episode. He explained that the particular area being searched is so desolate and rugged that effectively closing it would be very difficult, if not impossible).
By 10:30 PM, an Indiana State Police Helicopter equipped with sensitive infrared viewing gear was carefully scanning the target area for any trace of crash-related heat or debris (DNR Conservation Officer, Steve McClain explained to me that the infrared viewers used were very sensitive. He said that they would detect residual temperature variations on trees caused by limbs being broken as in a swath being cut by a crashing plane). On the night of Saturday, March 30, more than three hours of ground and aerial searching took place. Nothing was found.
The following day (Sunday, March 31, 1996), the search resumed. A small plane was used for aerial reconnaissance in addition to efforts on the ground. Another five hours were devoted to the cause. In all, more than 8 hours and fifty people were spent searching. By Sunday afternoon the operations were called off as absolutely no trace of a plane crash, fires, or any other disturbance could be found. In fact, the search was aided significantly by the time of year. Many of the forest trees were not yet sporting leaves. In the weeks that have followed the incident there have been no official follow-up searches or on-site investigations.
Due to a glaring lack of evidence, the possible relationship (if any) between the reported plane and the fireball/explosion cannot be resolved. Newspaper articles on this incident have stated that no local planes were reported missing or overdue. Officer McClain finds the whole episode to be a bit unusual in that several unrelated individuals within the forest saw the "fireball" and heard the explosion yet extensive searching provided no evidence that a destructive event occurred.
For lack of a better explanation, Forest Service officials have entertained the theory that the fireball/explosion may have been the result of someone testing homemade explosives.
The Following information was derived from a conversation that I had with Fire Chief, Scott Garrett, of the Perry Clear Creek Fire Company (April 23, 1996). Chief Garrett and his crew were among the first officials to arrive at the forest to begin investigating reports that a plane had crashed there. -Michael A. Frizzell
After receiving a report that a plane had crashed in the Hoosier National Forest near Lake Monroe, Fire Chief Scott Garrett and his crew arrived at the wilderness area at about 9:30 PM (Saturday, March 30, 1996). The fire fighters drove for 20 minutes along undeveloped roads to reach a fire observation tower several miles into the forest. On reaching the tower, Chief Garrett discovered that a DNR Conservation Officer was already there trying to get a fix on anything that might verify a possible emergency. The observation tower is located across Lake Monroe, a couple of miles south of Jake Watson's cabin.
Within the tower, Chief Garrett and the conservation officer carefully surveyed the entire area with binoculars. Garrett reported that while the sky was somewhat overcast, generally visibility overlooking the forest was good. Despite their intensive efforts, they saw no visual indication that anything was amiss in the Hoosier National Forest on that chilly Saturday night.
Adding some sense of urgency to Jake Watson's report was an unsubstantiated rumor that a plane was overdue at the municipal airport in Bloomington. Subsequently, Chief Garrett determined that the overdue plane report was false after checks were made with the local airport tower.
Following fire tower observations, ground search operations commenced. As the evening progressed, Garrett noticed as many as 15 college students hiking in and around the area asking questions about the crash. These adventure seekers were apparently made curious by late-breaking radio and television broadcasts which announced the suspected crash.
In spite of all endeavors by Chief Garrett and his firefighting team, no evidence of a downed plane or fires could be found.
The material offered here is not meant to be an exhaustive or all-inclusive study of the "crash" incident. It is one investigator's report that is intended to help clear the air on the controversy and to focus on what was actually sighted, reported, and investigated in the Hoosier National Forest from the dates of Saturday, March 30, 1996 through Sunday, March 31, 1996. I must also note that I have made multiple attempts to contact "ALindy" over the last three weeks using the email address he provided in the dialog. All my queries have gone unanswered. I have established that his email address uses an Indiana webserver. I did not personally contact the television station he claims to work for, though I did access their online personnel listing. None of the individuals included have initials such as "A.L." or "A. Lindy." Also, during the same time period, I made several attempts (two through email and one through phone mail) to contact WRTV-6 Feature Reporter, Marilyn Carter, concerning her on-the-scene coverage of the incident. I have not heard from her.
To say that any UFO investigator/ researcher would be interested in being a part of the fabled "crashed disk" scenario is probably an understatement. I am certainly no exception to that appealing idea. However, where the Hoosier National Forest case is concerned, I have found no evidence that indicates we should assemble private militias and comb the forest for extraterrestrial debris. The news reports I've read and the people I've talked to have been forthright and sincere in their reporting that this was a rather uneventful event. I did not detect any hint of collusion or dishonesty.
Based on the evidence I've obtained, I feel that the most intriguing elements of "ALindy's" claims were likely the products of a fertile imagination. Nonetheless, though there were no alien bodies or "blue teams" dispatched to clean up the mess, there may still be a mystery in all this.
The fact remains that a small plane was seen dangerously close to the tree line and that it descended from view. Consequently, several witnesses reported seeing a "fireball" and hearing an explosive sound. Unfortunately, no evidence of wreckage, debris, or residual fires was ever found. If a plane did crash, where is it? There were no bonifide reports of missing or overdue planes in the area. One theory is that the plane was an illicit drug shipment that went wrong. Another, is that the fireball/explosion was the result of some local people using the cover of dense wilderness to test homemade explosives. The fact remains that several unrelated people in that forest saw something unusual that should have left physical evidence but for which none has appeared. Perhaps time will tell...
Michael A. Frizzell, Research Director
The Enigma Project
April 25, 1996