UFO Fears Spark Panic in the Urals

While the “Russian Meteorite” news began to spread throughout the world at around 10:00 P.M. (PST) on 2-14-13--a story I was monitoring as it broke--rt.com (the Russian Times) was reporting that the Russian military had shot down a mysterious object from the sky, and that this object had crashed into a zinc factory in Chelyabinsk.  On that evening the banner headline for the Russian Times read as follows:

Meteorite crash in Russia: UFO fears spark panic in the Urals (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

Only days later, however, this same link takes one to a similar article bearing an altered headline: 

Meteorite hits Russian Urals: Fireball explosion wreaks havoc, up to 1,200 injured (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Almost all references to UFOs have been expunged, as if they had never been there at all, and the initial military shoot-down story is now refuted:

“The regional Emergency Ministry denied previous unconfirmed reports by local media that the meteorite was shot by the military air defenses.

“The local newspaper Znak reported the meteorite was intercepted by an air defense unit at the Urzhumka settlement near Chelyabinsk. Quoting a source in the military, it wrote a missile salvo blew the meteorite to pieces at an altitude of 20 kilometers.

“Regnum news agency quoted a military source who claimed that the vapor condensation trail of the meteorite speaks to the fact that the meteorite was intercepted by air defenses.

“Witnesses said the explosion was so loud that it seemed like an earthquake and thunder had struck at the same time, and that there were huge trails of smoke across the sky. Others reported seeing burning objects fall to earth.”

Comparisons between this most recent “Russian Meteorite” disaster and the infamous Tunguska Event that occurred in Siberia on June 30, 1908 are inevitable.  The May 2001 issue of Fate Magazine covered the more anomalous aspects of the Tunguksa Event in Dr. Vladimir Rubtsov's article entitled "The Unknown Tunguska:  What We Know and What We Do Not Know About the Great Explosion of 1908."  To read Dr. Rubtsov's entire article, click HERE.