Urban Myth.
A couple of years back, the dazed crew of a
Japanese
Trawler were recovered off the
Sea of Japan clinging to the wreckage of their ship. Their
rescue, however, was followed by immediate
imprisonment once authorities questioned the sailors on their ship's loss. They claimed that a
cow, falling out of the 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.
They forced the
cow into the
plane's hold and hastily
departed for home. Unprepared for live cargo, the
Russian
crew was ill-equipped to manage a rampaging cow within its
hold. To save the aircraft and themselves, they shoved the
animal out of the cargo hold as they crossed the Sea of
Japan at an
altitude of 30,000 feet.