A Russian professor has offered a fresh take on the longstanding theory that the infamous Dyatlov Pass incident was caused by a rocket launch gone wrong. The 1959 case, wherein nine hikers perished under bizarre circumstances in the Ural Mountains, has been the subject of considerable speculation for decades. Among the countless competing theories for what occurred that night is that the group's tragic fate was brought about by a rocket mishap that was subsequently covered up by Soviet officials. The scenario was reportedly put forward again last week by a Russian professor who was nearly a member of the doomed party himself.

A friend of group leader Igor Dyatlov, Peter Bartolomey was a proverbial late scratch on the 1959 trip and later became a Doctor of Technical Sciences at Russia's Ural Federal University. As one might imagine, his near-miss and personal connection to the case resulted in the professor taking a keen interest in determining what caused the terrible event. At a press conference last week, Bartolomey presented his case for the rocket theory often suggested by other researchers. The professor specifically argued that "the preservation of the group's footprints over a vast distance indicated "nitrogen-acid exposure" in the environment.

"This is the only correct scientific explanation for what happened," Bartolomey boldly declared. As for where this material may have come from, he pointed to a rocket that experienced an "emergency flight interruption" after being launched on the night of the incident from a Soviet military base approximately 1,000 miles away from what is now known as Dyatlov Pass. Bartolomey posited that the immediate presence of high-ranking government officials at the campsite following the discovery of the hikers' bodies was indicative of their knowledge of the true nature of the tragedy and the need to quickly cover it up.

As noted, the professor is not the first to advance the rocket theory, and, in fact, he was part of a 2023 press conference wherein a panel of Russian scientists made the case for that scenario in the form of a nitric acid fog that enveloped the scene following the mishap. Critics of the controversial concept counter with the assertion that such chemical material would have been consumed in the process of the projectile taking flight and, therefore, could not have fallen upon the hikers. With that in mind, what's your theory for what caused the confounding events of February 1959 in the Ural Mountains? Share your best guess with us at the C2C Facebook page.