BajaNomad - Airplane Crash or ???

Airplane Crash or ???

TMW - 11-9-2009 at 07:16 PM

Looking at Google on line satellite maps and was trying to trace the route from Rosarito to San Borja and I came across what looks like an airplane. It may be a white building but the resolution is not good enough for my eyes.

If you follow the road out of Rosarito with your zoom at 5 marks below max you'll come across what is marked as Compostela. Keep going and there is a road going south from the main road for a mile or so. Center the end of that road then scroll right for about 2 miles and there it is. With the distance at 2000 ft on the marker you can see the end of the road and what looks like an airplane. Then zoom in on the plane or building. Sorry, I don't have my almanac to see what's may be in the area.

Diver - 11-9-2009 at 07:22 PM

http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=42239#pid4617...

TMW - 11-9-2009 at 07:26 PM

I'll be down there prerunning that section next week. But that not the one I spotted. RM180 in north of hwy 3 before the Hwy 3 and 5 jct.

TMW - 11-10-2009 at 08:26 AM

When I got home I looked for it again on Google Earth and it is at 28-37-25.16 x 113-40-14.94 @ 3466ft.

capt. mike - 11-10-2009 at 08:51 AM

there are several never solved mysteries of missing planes in baja still today - one being my Serenidad neighbors from oct 2006 flying Juan relief.

blue and white Bonanza V-tail. We all assume they went down in the Ocean between Mulege and some unknown distance north enroute to San Felipe ; but there were a lot of storms and WX that day so he might have gotten way off track and/or between layers before he apparantly lost it.

i hope someone can identify this wreck officially. a substantial reward remains uncollected on the former.

TW's site is southeast of San Borja

David K - 11-10-2009 at 09:36 AM

If it is a plane, it crashed on the side of a mesa, just below the top... a few feet higher and he would have made an emergency landing, and maybe walked away from it?

This is south of San Gregorio... L.A. Bay can be seen in the distance, San Borja is to the northwest...

The GPS (WGS84) is 28º37'25.25" 113º40'15.18"

[Edited on 11-11-2009 by David K]

BajaGeoff - 11-10-2009 at 12:32 PM

Holy cow. That is definitely a plane. I want to know more!

capt. mike - 11-10-2009 at 12:45 PM

i don't think so. Looks more like an aerial survey cross.
at that angle of repose there would have been a lot of destructive break-up.
hope someone can get to it for verification.

Barry A. - 11-10-2009 at 12:47 PM

I agree with Capt. Mike.

Barry

DENNIS - 11-10-2009 at 12:49 PM

Why would a downed plane turn brite white?

bajaguy - 11-10-2009 at 01:04 PM

I have been to too many aircraft crash sites to believe that this is an aircraft........IF this is a plane, someone put it there with a helicopter or it just floated out of the sky without a wreckage trail or disturbed vegetation.

Only pilot who can do that would be Cap'n Mike

Also, if you enlarge the photo, there appears to be a structure or some rocks in front of the right "wing" and to the right of the "c-ckpit"

[Edited on 11-10-2009 by bajaguy]

capt. mike - 11-10-2009 at 01:05 PM

also - note the "cross" is next to a goat trail ridge road where a jeep or some 4WD crew could get there to install it.

i've seen them before, used for aerial topo survey work flown at mid level altitudes under gov't contracts like for USGS.

DENNIS - 11-10-2009 at 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by capt. mike
also - note the "cross" is next to a goat trail ridge road where a jeep or some 4WD crew could get there to install it.

i've seen them before, used for aerial topo survey work flown at mid level altitudes under gov't contracts like for USGS.

Wouldn't they do that on level ground?

capt. mike - 11-10-2009 at 01:22 PM

can't say. they place them for specific reasons and in rough terrain there may not be "level" ground where they want to take a shot from above.
had a friend years ago who flew contract surveys in a specially set up C 320 Skynight with computer rigged mapping cameras in the belly. i lost track of him then read where a 320 was lost in the northwest a few years ago with one pilot on board. He worked all over the western US. Never saw him at Scottsdale airport after that. Weird.

BajaGeoff - 11-10-2009 at 02:43 PM

If it is in fact an aerial survey cross, then why is it not uniform? Based upon Google Earth it is approximately 160 feet long and a little over 100 feet wide. It looks much different from the aerial survey cross that was mentioned in previous threads. It also appears as though the shorter sections are somewhat pulled back like airplane wings. If you put North at the 8 o'clock position in Google Earth you get an interesting perspective. Also...the goat trails might be from people going to retrieve whatever was on the plane.

Hard to say since the resolution is so poor once you get in close...but it sure makes for a good story!

[Edited on 11-10-2009 by BajaGeoff]

arrowhead - 11-10-2009 at 02:58 PM

It is a jet aircraft. Google says the fuselage is about 140 feet in length, which makes it something like a 727 or DC-9. It could be decades old. The area is so remote there is no practical way to haul it out.

Taco de Baja - 11-10-2009 at 03:03 PM

My guess is that is ia a plane, but it is in the air and just happened to be there when the google pic was taken.

I have seen several of these while looking at google.

Its too damn big for a survey marker.

David K - 11-10-2009 at 03:07 PM

COOL Taco, COOL!

Barry A. - 11-10-2009 at 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by arrowhead
It is a jet aircraft. Google says the fuselage is about 140 feet in length, which makes it something like a 727 or DC-9. It could be decades old. The area is so remote there is no practical way to haul it out.

-----and it ended up there by use of a "sky hook" and winch which gently laid in in place?? I am bettin a NOMAD did it, to make us all oooh and ahhhhh, and it worked.

I love it!!

(just pullin your leg, Arrow)

Barry

bajaguy - 11-10-2009 at 03:09 PM

David....hop on your pony and get down there....we need photos and an on the spot report

capt. mike - 11-10-2009 at 03:09 PM

it DOES resemble the profile of a 727 or DC-9. Look at the jet nacelles close to the tail.
i am going with Taco on this one.
if it hit the ground at any attitude there it would be in pieces. nowhere as intact as it shows.
as inspector Cluseau says.... the case is sol ved. :lol:

bajaguy - 11-10-2009 at 03:13 PM

Ah, Kato, my inscrutable friend....no it is not.....

Look at the "tail" and left "wing" area....I enlarged the screen view to 200 and see what appears to be a fan shaped lighter discoloration of vegetation from the tail and wing down to the left and bottom of the picture.......

k-rico - 11-10-2009 at 03:15 PM

Is it on Bing?

Do Bing and Google use the same datasource? I dunno.

http://www.bing.com/maps/

Skeet/Loreto - 11-10-2009 at 03:25 PM

Survery Marker or brought in by Mule!

Of the many Aviation Accidents I investigated over the 15 years of doing so, only one would come close that is one I investifated on Nov,22 1968 where the Japan Airlines Dc 8 laned in the Water on the Approach to runway at San Francisco. Landed in 7 feet of Mud and water, No damage hardky at all, no In juries.
Skeet

Taco de Baja - 11-10-2009 at 03:49 PM

Here are some other planes in flight found by other people. The first one's from near Newport Beach, CA, don’t know about the others:

Santiago - 11-10-2009 at 03:53 PM

I think Taco has it. It does look like a jet but no way could it be sitting on the ground in one piece.

David K - 11-10-2009 at 04:01 PM

Yah, that is the SIDE of a mountain/ mesa.

BajaGeoff - 11-10-2009 at 04:15 PM

I wonder how often Google Earth updates images. It would be interesting to see what is/is not there next time around.

DENNIS - 11-10-2009 at 04:22 PM

This is so much nonsense. A profile of a humongous aircraft set on a hillside.
I think Terry pointed out the bullcrap of the suggestions. A plane profile on the ground without marks of skidding to a stop. It just kind of slowly dropped from the sky straight down to it's final resting place. :lol:

It's not a freakin plane. It's a white painted X .

Some of you guys need Art Bell more than you know.

Taco de Baja - 11-10-2009 at 04:50 PM

Maybe it's simply just a hole/tear in the film/negative...or missing pixels in the digital image....

Or if you squint it could be a skinny image of Patrick from the Sponge-Bob Squarepants Show. :lol:

mtgoat666 - 11-10-2009 at 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
The GPS (WGS84) is 28º37'25.25" 114º40'15.18"

DK: for a map man, you sure got the coordinates wrong!!!!! :lol:

The shape y'all are seeing is simply a flying plane that was passing thru when pic was taken. Using google earth it has apparent length of 133 feet, so sort of too big to be a survey target

end of story.

[Edited on 11-11-2009 by mtgoat666]

arrowhead - 11-10-2009 at 10:10 PM

I checked the image of that LAT/LON on Terraserver (2008 image and 2005 image) down to .5 meter per pixel resolution and there is no airplane, or anything else, there. It was a plane in flight.

David K - 11-11-2009 at 06:51 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by mtgoat666

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
The GPS (WGS84) is 28º37'25.25" 113º40'15.18"

DK: for a map man, you sure got the coordinates wrong!!!!! :lol:

Not me, blame Google Earth... unless I wrote it wrong? So, what is the correct coordinate?

[Edited on 11-11-2009 by David K]

Taco de Baja - 11-11-2009 at 08:17 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
The GPS (WGS84) is 28º37'25.25" 114º40'15.18"

Not me, blame Google Earth... unless I wrote it wrong? So, what is the correct coordinate?

Longitude should be 113º not 114º.... But what's a little degree among nomads?

David K - 11-11-2009 at 08:29 AM

Thank you Taco... I appreciate you showing me the typo, and I have edited it where I could, above. Yes, 113º as that can even be seen in the Google image!