Case file · Anomaly hotspot
Levanevsky lost over the Arctic
On 13 August 1937 Soviet pilot Sigizmund Levanevsky and five crew vanished in the four-engined N-209 while flying from Moscow to Fairbanks over the North Pole.
1937 CE · 83.00, -160.00 · status: unexplained
The account
After a message that an engine had failed, nothing more was heard. A huge Soviet and American search, joined by the polar explorer Hubert Wilkins, found nothing. Position approximate. Theories place the wreck from the Arctic Ocean to Alaska's lakes.
The researched reading
A Soviet transpolar flight lost after radioing engine failure and icing. A crash on the Arctic ice or sea explains it.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A known natural phenomenon | 40% | The last messages reported the failure of an outer engine and heavy icing beyond the Pole; a forced descent onto sea ice or open water in the polar autumn would be fatal and leave little to find. |
| Something known, misidentified | 22% | Engine failure (reported by radio) is a known mechanical cause; navigation errors in the Arctic with magnetic compasses were common. |
| Undetermined | 20% | The share a generic explanation had beyond what has been shown for this case: it fits many cases like this one, but has not been demonstrated for this one. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 5% | Later reports of the plane being seen near Alaska are unverified. |
| Secret human technology | 4% | Stories that the crew were victims of Stalin’s purges have no evidence. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 3% | No fabrication in the core event. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 3% | No unusual natural cause needed. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 3% | Engine failure and icing over the Arctic explain it. |
Official position: A large Soviet and American search, including Hubert Wilkins’s flights, found nothing.