About 9 years ago, I received the following e-mail from a good friend of mine, an experienced and level-headed pilot and ATC. I bumped into it today and wondered if any of the older fellow a.netters has heard about this case.

<< I'm not sure if this actually happened , but I thought we'd share it anyway...

According to Reuters, the dazed crew of a Japanese trawler was plucked out of the Sea of Japan earlier this year [i.e., 1997] clinging to the wreckage of their sunken ship. Their rescue was followed by immediate imprisonment once authorities questioned the sailors on their ship's loss. To a man they claimed that a cow, falling out of a clear blue sky, had struck the trawler amidships, shattering its hull and sinking the vessel within minutes. They remained in prison for several weeks, until the Russian Air Force reluctantly informed Japanese authorities that the crew of one of its cargo planes had apparently stolen a cow wandering at the edge of a Siberian airfield, forced the cow into the plane's hold and hastiliy taken off for home. Unprepared for live cargo, the Russian crew was ill-equipped to manage a frightened cow rampaging within the hold. To save the aircraft and themselves, they shoved the animal out of the cargo hold as they crossed the Sea of Japan at a altitude of 30,000 feet. >>

What do you guys think? Is there something true to this story or is it one more of those legends that spreaded frequently back when the internet was almost a novelty?

I am posting this in good faith and with a true intention for finding out. No    please.

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