03/10/2009
ArcImaging - The Search For Noah's Ark
1974 - Al Shappell Statements
In
June, 1974, a Navy pilot and I were assigned a mission from the higher ups
(CIA) to fly a highly secret reconnaissance trip over Mount Ararat to
photograph something that they thought might be a Soviet-made defense
installation or radar station with a black tarp over it. Others in "the land of Oz," as we called
the unknown location where our orders would come from (CIA?), had recently
obtained a satellite photo of a foreign object toward the summit of Ararat.
Since it was a secret mission and that corner of the world was a strategic
area with several nations and the Soviets nearby, there was no identification
on the plane or on us. It was a
coal-black foreign object about two-thirds of the way up the mountain near a
gorge. It was oblong and partially buried
in ice, overhanging a cliff. To me, it certainly looked similar to a boat-like
object, definitely manmade. It also appeared as though it did not belong on
the mountain. It was just totally out of place. You could tell that there was a big melt back of the ice cap
for two reasons. First, there was a tremendous amount of water rushing down
the mountain from the ice cap. Second, the intelligence community had military
satellites photographing this area for years before but it wasn't until 1974
that they noticed this object and had us go check it out. I believe this is
because it was recently uncovered from the glacier and they recently spotted
it. Flying in the plane, the structure
appeared to be about 300 feet long until snow and ice covered it. It was
square on the end and I would guess it might be 100 to 200 feet in width and
height. There is another ledge with an icepack 30 to 50 feet below the main
structure with a littering of debris underneath the main structure. The end of
the upper structure had broken off and I could see the broken off piece in the
snow pack at the bottom of the ledge.