Somewhere in the Skies - The Grouse Mountain UFO Incident

Episode Date: February 26, 2024

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at: www.betterhelp.com/skies and get on your way to being your best self. On episode 344 of SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES, Ryan returns to bring you the incredible, but tragic story of the Grouse Mountain UFO. On February 12th, 1954, US Air Force Second Lieutenant Lamar Barlow was piloting his F-86 Sabre jet over Grouse Mountain. However, shortly after 12pm, the control tower began receiving “Mayday” calls from Barlow. What happened next would spark an intense investigation and would depend on the witness testimony of a six-year old girl. What exactly was Barlow chasing and what could possibly have caused his untimely demise? Written and co-researched by Marcus Lowth: www.ufoinsight.com Voiceover by David Flora: www.hysteria51.com Patreon: www.patreon.com/somewhereskies PayPal: [e-mail] Website: www.somewhereintheskies.com YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE Order Ryan’s new book: https://a.co/d/4KNQnM4 Order Ryan’s older book: https://amzn.to/3PmydYC Twitter: @SomewhereSkies Read Ryan’s Articles by CLICKING HERE Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte Copyright © 2023 Ryan Sprague. All rights reserved. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grouse Mountain is one of the North Shore Mountains of the Pacific Ranges of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. With a maximum elevation of over 4,100 feet at its peak, the mountain is the site of an alpine ski area, Grouse Mountain Resort, which overlooks Metro Vancouver and has four chairlifts servicing 33 different runs. In the summer, Grouse Mountain Resort features lumberjack shows, of Birds of Prey demonstration, helicopter tours, and guided eco walks. Year-round operations include a hundred-seat mountaintop theater and a wildlife refuge.

It's truly a destination stop, but in 1954, it became the site of a tragic incident involving a plane and a craft of unknown origin. This is the Grouse Mountain UFO incident. This is somewhere in the skies with Ryan's bread. The dark and cloudy morning on February 12, 1954, at around 10.30 a.m., U.S. Air Force 2nd Lieutenant Lamar Barlow was piloting his F-86 Sabre jet over the North Shore Mountains. More specifically, Grouse Mountain. Earlier that morning, Barlow had left the runway from Mawkshers.

McCord Air Force Base over the state border in Tacoma, Washington. Although the jet was fully armed, the flight was simply a standard instrument-checking exercise. However, shortly after 12 p.m., the control tower began receiving Mayday calls from Barlow. According to a report, Barlow's compass had stopped working, and he was now lost. Records from McCord Air Force Base showed that at 12.06 p.m., Barlow, was approximately 60 miles north of Vancouver. Nine minutes later, and with the aid of radar operators, the distance was reduced to only 15 miles.

By this time, however, the F-86 was beginning to run remarkably low on fuel. Preparations were made for an emergency landing at Vancouver's Sea Island Airport. Before permission to land was granted, though, all communication with Barlow was lost. However, at an altitude of 2,700 feet and at a speed of over 750 miles per hour, Barlow still strapped firmly into a seat, slammed squarely into the mountainside. Debris would fly into all directions and travel a considerable distance. Several days later, accounts began to appear in newspapers, locally and nationally. The cause of the crash, according to the United States Air Force, was pilot error.

Barlow, they said, was seeing, quote, radar ghosts. This, combined with the loss of his navigation equipment, confused the pilot, who believed he was nearer to Tacoma than he actually was. When Grouse Mountain suddenly came into view, given the speed at which he was traveling, Barlow simply had no time to react. This seemed a sound enough explanation. However, to some, the official explanation just didn't add up.

Not least, why he was traveling so fast while descending in the first place. While the Air Force chalked this up to experience, or lack thereof, on Barlow's part, it was an aspect of the case, like many others, that left many suspicions. For example, why was the plane carrying 24 fully armed rockets on what was essentially, essentially a training exercise. Although skeptics to UFO claims point out that this is to produce the realistic weight of a plane should be heading into combat, this would appear to be something achievable without using fully armed weaponry. Certainly not with an inexperienced pilot.

If we accept for a moment that the U.S. Air Force's claim regarding Barlow and his error causing the crash. Furthermore, the entire area was roped off and protected by armed guards 24 hours a day for several days after the incident. Officially and understandably, this was to retrieve most of the 24 rockets in question. Whether that is an honest assessment or not, it certainly provided ample reason for the military to shield the activities at the crash site from the public. Returning to the question of why the F-86 jet was armed, some researchers believed the reason to be far more serious than a mere test, even sinister. According to some who have studied and researched the Grouse Mountain incident, Barlow's mission that morning was not to check onboard instruments,

but to pursue and intercept a UFO. And if necessary, pursue with deadly force. All reports concerning the cleanup operation following the crash mentioned that most of the rockets were retrieved. Might there still be missing weaponry from the F-86 somewhere in the woodlands of Grouse Mountain? Or might it be that one or more of the rockets were discharged during the two hours or so that Barla was in the air? especially when we know that the radar echoes remain unexplained even today, as well as the sudden failure of all instruments and communication. Was this mysterious radar phantom echo the UFO in question?

And did Barlow fire upon it, provoking such a response? Perhaps this is why the pilot was so far off course and out of the United States airspace, space in the first place. It should also be noted that the United States Air Force at the time of the incident would often use the phrase phantom radar echo to describe any aerial anomaly, or what we have recently coined as unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAP. If Barlow was on an intercept mission that fateful morning, it's perhaps understandable and even expected that the United States Air Force would keep the details of the mission secret.

So just exactly what was it that Barlow was possibly chasing? UFO researcher Gord Heath makes some intriguing and on balance convincing proposals as to what happened over Grouse Mountain that morning. For example, he asks why the pilot was allowed to stray so far off course, across the border, into camps. without radar control alerting him to the fact. Remember, according to the report, it only became apparent that Barlow was so far off course when he himself issued a May Day call following the apparent malfunction of his navigation instruments. Of course, if Barlow, with radar control in full knowledge, was pursuing an unknown craft,

then these actions of radar control would make sense. In a twist that makes the incident sound even more like a blockbuster movie, the only witness to the events was a six-year-old girl who was returning home from school for a lunch break. Robin McPherson would tell newspaper reporters that she was almost directly in line with the ski lift that the F-86 jet only just missed as it approached the mountain. She would report that it was awfully low and came out of the clouds very fast. It then zoomed up and went into the trees on the side of the mountain. McPherson didn't recall hearing any noise of an explosion as it made impact.

In the same newspaper story, military spokesman wondered why the pilot had not bailed out, which was usual procedure. There certainly seems to have been no hesitancy to find. placed the blame squarely on the recently deceased pilot by his military colleagues. The fact that there was no description of the object, if indeed a UFO was present that morning, makes it impossible to compare with other sightings. However, the state of Washington in the United States and British Columbia in Canada have long, rich histories of UFO activity, with many reports on record around the time of the fateful Grouse Mountain crash.

In the weeks following the Grouse Mountain tragedy, there was a large UFO wave across the entire world. For example, on the evening of March 28, 1954, around six weeks after the Grouse Mountain incident, five witnesses would report several mysterious lights over the town of Sumner. As the witnesses drove along, The lights would come together and then descend upon their vehicle. With sudden speed, the lights then banked upward and shot off into the distance and out of sight. One incident, however, stands out more than the rest. Not just because it took place over the two same separate air spaces as the Grouse Mountain crash,

but it demonstrated, in apparent knowledge of the aviation procedures of the United States. Shortly after 8 p.m. on June 21st, 1954, radars from the state of Washington and from Vancouver in Canada would pick up an unidentified object on their systems. The radar system would automatically ask who the object was, essentially requesting their IFF code. Quite certain the object was not a United States aircraft. The control tower was collectively shot

when at 8.24 p.m. of response came back. And to their astonishment, the code it offered was indeed the correct one. Making the encounter even more concerning was the fact that the object, or whatever the intelligence was behind it, would respond with several more correct and appropriate codes. This was something not lost on those in the three different control towers, currently tracking the strange and unknown object. If those that were behind the UFOs increasingly witnessed around the United States had access to such secret codes,

it meant that air defense was essentially ineffective, and airspace could be breached easily. The Summer in the Sky's podcast is free to listen to every week, but if you would like to help support the show, we have a very active Patreon page, where you give what you think the show is worth. In return, you'll get early access to the main show, bonus episodes, and priority to ask our guests your listener questions.

Your support truly makes the show continue and grow. So, to learn more and to join, visit patreon.com slash somewhere skies. This episode is brought to you by Netflix. Most valuable promotions in Netflix are hosting a blockbuster triple headliner Saturday, May 16th. Rhonda Rousey returns to face fellow woman's MMA pioneer Gina Carrano in the main event. Plus co-main's Nate Diaz

versus Mike Perry, and the best heavyweight in the world, Frances Angano versus Felipe Lins. Watch Rhonda Rousey versus Gina Carano, live only on Netflix. Saturday, May 16th at 9 p.m. Eastern Center time, 6 p.m. Pacific time. Making the incident even more unnerving, when two F-86 jets were sent

to intercept the object, the anomaly would split into two. and perform maneuvers far beyond what the fighter could perform before finally disappearing from visual sight and radar. The total length of the encounter was 82 minutes. The sighting remains unexplained. It is perhaps interesting to note the course of action taken by the United States Air Force to scramble F-86 fighter jets.

A local newspaper would tell the residents' reports of, strange lights in the sky between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on the night in question. Interestingly, a sighting earlier the same day near Mount Vernon was described by the witness as looking like the upper half of a bubble on water. As much as there were several sightings and encounters that followed the Grouse Mountain incident, there were equally as many that preceded in the state of Washington and British Columbia on the Canadian side of the border. Almost a year previously, for example, in the town of Rosalia came another incident involving another military aircraft, this time a B-36. The incident occurred at just after 1.30 a.m. on February 6, 1953.

The B-36 was in flight when the crew noticed a white omnidirectional light flashing at short but regular intervals. The crew would watch the light for between three to five minutes before attempting to turn towards it. As they did so, however, it vanished, leaving the plane to continue on with its original course. Several months later, on the evening of May 12th, several unidentified blips appeared on ground control radars. When jet interceptors were scrambled, although they could also see the anomalies on the radar screens, none of them could confirm visual identification. Strangely, however, one particular aircraft pilot would claim to have locked on to one of the objects on several occasions,

although there was no known wreckage or recovery of such. After a little over two hours, the object simply vanished. A little over a year before the Grouse Mountain incident on the evening of December 22nd, 1952 at Larson Air Force Base, an off-duty instrument technician would make a report of a strange object near the base. The technician in question was driving back toward the base at around 7.30 p.m. when the object became visible through the windshield of his vehicle. He pulled the car over in order to watch more closely.

He would detail the following. The object, metallic in nature, was hat-shaped. It seemed to have no appendages and no sign of visible propulsion. It would move its spurts at an angle of 45 degrees before suddenly speeding up considerably. While it was at this speed, the object appeared to glow a brilliant white. It would perform this maneuver three times, and on each occasion, a red underside was clearly visible. Equally, at one point during these rolls, the light appeared to go out completely. This suggests that the craft had three sides or surfaces to its exterior, one of which housed no lights at all.

The object would eventually settle in the sky at a relatively high altitude. It would occasionally dart to the left or right and then back again. Around 15 minutes after the object first appeared, it darted off into the distance and I completely lost sight of it. Another interesting case happened on the Canadian side and is known as the Vancouver. Island incident. In early October of 1981, around 6 p.m., Hannah McRoberts, was on vacation on Vancouver Island. During this time, she would take multiple pictures of the mountain ranges and woodlands. According to McRoberts, in one specific picture she took, she noticed a strange cloud

around the top of the mountain, similar to a volcano issuing steam. The rest of the group she was with didn't see. see anything unusual, and so she simply forgot about the incident. That was until she had the photographs developed several weeks later. When she focused in on the strange cloud, her attention immediately went to the right of it. There was an apparent solid, circular craft. The picture soon came to the attention of UFO researchers and investigators. It would also come to the attention of a member of the Vancouver McMillan Planetarium, David Powell. Powell would ultimately, through several channels, get the photograph to a UFO group in Arizona. Essentially, their

investigation of the picture would ultimately lead them to believe Hannah McRoberts' picture was a legitimate classical-type UFO photo. It should also be noted that the location of the McRoberts photograph was extremely close to Mount Rainer, which was the location of the famous Kenneth Arnold citing from the summer of 1947. Before returning to the Grouse Mountain tragedy, it should be noted that Washington State was, and remains, a hotbed of UFO activity,

even up to recent years. In a 12-month period from January 2018 to January of 2019, there were 160 reported UFO sightings in the state of Washington. Just to break this down, this translates to one sighting on average every 55 hours, or almost one every two days. And that's before we take into account the sightings that go unreported, unremembered, or even unrecognized. The sightings, according to the National UFO Reporting Statistics, include various types of

craft and occur at equally various times of the day. Some of them, however, undoubtedly sound extremely similar to those reported from the 1950s and onward. For example, on the evening of January 25, 2018, several people in Yakima witnessed several strange lights, blink on and off before several craft arrived. Two of these craft hovered at a similar altitude. The third one, however, began to climb at an incredible rate higher than the other objects. The witnesses would note how bright the object was, but even more spectacular, this disc-shaped object seemed to create a cloud for it to vanish behind. In April 2018, in the Cotitas region of the state, a witness who was smoking a cigarette outside would suddenly notice a globe-like object overhead. He would later describe it as moving in a circular motion and flashing red, blue, white, and green.

He would liken the object to a fireball of energy bursting repeatedly. Perhaps a sighting that had chilling similarities to the types of intercept missions of previous decades occurred on the night of May 26, 2018. On that evening, an engaged couple on their evening bike ride witnessed several objects moving in purposeful formation. Then, a military-style helicopter approached the objects, only to turn away as if repelled. A sighting in June, almost exactly a month later, took place in the immediate vicinity of Mount St. Helens. A passenger on board of Boeing 737 reported a strange craft traveling at a 45-degree angle before disappearing into the clouds.

Another sighting from October of 2018, with the witness being a former pilot, saw a spherical orange glowing craft which moved silently across the skies of University Place. The movements, bizarrely or not, were more akin to how a living creature would move, as opposed to machinery. So where does the Grouse Mountain incident fit within the plethora of UFO sightings from this part of the United States, as well as within the surge of such incidents unfolding regularly in the early part of the 1950s? While there's no proof of a nuts and bolts UFO in the skies over the American Canada border on the afternoon of February 12, 1954, given what we know of such incidents, including just how many UFO, sightings taking place in the state of Washington, it is possible that a UFO of some kind could have been responsible for the phantom radar echoes and the alleged intercept.

Is there still information or secret files to surface regarding the alleged UFO involvement in the fatal crash of Lamar Barlow? Only time will tell. Whatever did cause the plane of Lamar Barlow, to go headlong into the rocky, snowy mountainside remains a mystery. And so do the hundreds upon hundreds of UFO reports in the state of Washington. And while we may never truly know what so tragically happened to Barlow, we can continue to search for answers somewhere in the skies.

This episode was written and co-researched by Marcus Loth. To learn more, visit U.S. UFO Insight.com. Thank you to David Flora for his voiceover talents. You can follow his work at Hysteria51.com. And you can follow us on Twitter at SomewhereSkies. Thank you for listening. And remember, keep your feet on the ground,

but never stop searching somewhere in the skies. Somewhere in the Skies is produced by third-kind productions in association with the Entertainment One podcast network.