E. Buyanov - Mystery of the Dyatlov group death

The hypothesis about the surface-to-air missile raised a question: «And why to rocket? On what targets»? Indeed this type of fire was a very expensive thing. Allegedly the scouting sondes that the Americans launched to our territory using radio and photo equipment for «espionage» purposes could be the targets. The sondes mostly flied on the western winds of a stratosphere at the height of about 20–30 km and only the rocket could misguide them in those years. The burning of the sphere filled with hydrogen after it was hit by the rocket, in my opinion, could increase some time of the «star’s» sighting and «lessen» the visible contradiction of my «theory».

I didn't post an article on the web-sites because of some doubts, I only post it on a tourist club’s forum «Romantic» of USTU and sent to my acquaintances over the Internet. At the beginning of 2007y.) on the forum Igor Shelemetyev immediately began to retort me. He denied my position almost about all questions, following the «human and criminal» version of Dyatlov’s accident, and asserted in his letter on the 17th of February that a whizbang (a guided missile) «Burya» was fired from the aeroballistic range in Vladimirovka (it was situated approximately in 50 km from Kapustin Yar range).

«Burya» on Vladimirovka aeroballistic range.

The Muscovite Vladimir Borzenkov also objected to me – he, the assistant professor of MAI and the skilled tourist skier, argued that at that time they didn't manage to prelocate the air defense missile battalion on-station and referred to the Tsisar’s memoirs on the Internet. Therefore the flights of the surface-to-air missile couldn't take place. The memoirs of Tsisar (Цисаря) were found and read by me. But it was difficult to draw certain conclusions on the basis of this book and to decide when and where battalions acted and what alert status each battalion had.

I reported to Borzenkov about Shelemetyev's objections and conveyed the fact about «Burya». Borzenkov answered that according to his information «Burya» was fired not on the 17th of February but on the 17th of April – in the day when the «fiery spheres» weren't seen. I was all at sea with these contradictions, they made me to stumble at the correctness of both my and opponents’ conclusions. Having reflected for a while I decided to check the fact of «Burya»’s launch and to find the third source of information that would help me to decide who is right – Shelemetyev or Borzenkov.

In my library I found the accidentally bought book written by A.B.Zheleznyakov «The rocket fell flying up» (S-Pb, «System», 2003), the «polytechnician» colleague, the historian and the pundit on the rocketry. I checked the chronology of the emergency space shots according to the book but there were no information about the missile launchings on 17.02 and 31.03. I decided to find Zheleznyakov and to know his opinion both about my article and the fact that «Burya» was fired. It was simple to find his website, as well as an e-mail address. Zheleznyakov quickly answered on my inquiry and, having talked with him over the phone, I revealed the new interesting facts. He reported that from 1953 till 1960 the Americans launched more than 12 thousand scouting sondes to our territory! The sondes were launched from Western Europe, Scandinavia and the North Sea from the ships and planes and were set down and caught over the territory of the Russian Far East. The sondes had a complex cellular structure and it was very difficult to misguide them from the plane as far as one perforation due to a shell or a bullet impact didn't cause the sonde’s fall. Of course a large number of the sondes flew away in the wrong places and many of them were lost but certain examples got information. The sondes were filled with helium and they couldn't be on fire like the one filled with hydrogen.

Zheleznyakov objected to the surface-to-air missile theory, having specified that the time of flight didn't correspond to the time of its observation. I understood «the killing moment» of this argument and for some time I had a heavy heart. Perhaps it was «not a rocket» but different sorts of things?

Zheleznyakov told that no whizbangs were fired (including the «Burya» ones) on 01–02.02.59 y. He indicated the following dates and details of the «Burya» whizbangs that were fired from Vladimirovka range:

20.02.1959, middle 2/5, the whizbang wasn’t fired due to technical difficulties (the failure occurred during the start).

29.03.1959, middle 3/4, the flight lasted for 25. 33 minutes. Because of the power generator failure on-speed wasn’t achieved. The air range of theintercontinental cruise missile was 1315 km.

19.04.1959, middle. 2/5, endurance – 33. 5 minutes. The air range – 1766 km. The maximum speed – 3. 15 M.

02.10.1959, middle 2/4, the mission design is executed. The time of flight – 10 minutes 17 s.

My guess about «Burya» was wrong, the surface-to-air missile theory became irrelevant and I again was all at sea. Perhaps all these «rockets» have nothing to do with this. Perhaps absolutely different phenomenon was observed. After thinking for a while, I called Gerstein and asked: «You are ufologist, what is your opinion about the origin of the «fiery spheres?» Mikhail answered: «The only reason of their appearance is caused by a rocket!». And again he threw off the word about the launch from Tjuratam range on 17.02.59; we discussed it in March, 2006 at our first meeting in RGS. But at that I time didn't believe it- after all Baikonur (Tjuratam) outlied at a very big distance from the north of Ural – it was more than 1700 km. This place seemed to be too distant and it was impossible to observe the launch because the missile was ascending to the level of only 200–300 km, moreover it was 30 degrees above the horizon as the witnesses said. The simple estimate excluded such variant.

But now the secondary reminder about the launch on the 17th of February raised my suspicions. Everything again came to this «stubborn» date. I decided to check this launch. Meditating I once again browsed Zheleznyakov's book and read the. Maybe these R-7 launchings weren’t a «space» one or an «emergency» one and for these reason there were no information about them in the chronology of the emergency launches. And what about that «fiery sphere» which was observed by Shtraukh? If there is any mention of it in Zheleznyakov's book? Having opened the book on page 179 I found a suspicious record from 16.02.79:

«16.02.79. From the 41st pad of the Plesetsk spaceport a rocket vehicle «Soyuz – U» was fired that should place into orbit the next camera-carrying satellite «Zenith-2М» type. Because of RV failure the launching ended unsuccessfully».

I had a feeling that I was very close to the solution. During the launch from Plesetsk spaceport the rocket vehicle flied closer to the north of Ural than the one from Tjuratam range. It could be visible for people but this launch didn't explain other ones. Generally these data made my suspicions about the launch on the 17th of February stronger. I decided to ask Zheleznyakov about this and at the same time to know about other launches that were made on 31.03.59 and 16.02.79. I carefully thought over the matter and the possible versions of the answers.