FIND THE PHOTOS ONLINE: -- "Grizzly bear eats aeroplane in Alaska," Johannesburg Sunday Times -- "Bear attack on bush plane in Alaska," ZRXOA message board -- "Bear attacks plane -- Plane survives," Honda Element Owners' Club forum -- Discovery Channel's MythBusters forum -- "Unusual bear attack in Alaska," Snopes.com

There's been a story circulating the Internet for a few months now -- a tale about a pilot in Alaska who had to fly home on a wing, a prayer and a case of duct tape after his plane was mauled by a bear. Some say the bear was after fish. Some say he was just being a jerk. And some don't believe the story at all, chalking it up to Last Frontier fish tales and Internet hype.

Turns out, though, this online "myth" is grounded firmly in reality.

When bush pilot Luke Miller, 28, made an overnight stop at a friend's hunting lodge in Southwest Alaska earlier this year, he had no way to know that a large and very dedicated menace would, under cover of night, chew and claw his plane to shreds.

There are bear tales by the thousands in Alaska, and with this one the pictures alone are worth a thousand words. (Imagine what might result if a model plane made of paper-thin aluminum had a run-in with Edward Scissorhands.) At the request of the pilot, who says the images are copyrighted, we can't show them to you here. They're easy enough to find, though; shortly after the big bad bear left a big bad mess, the images of the aftermath moved through the blogosphere with lightning speed, and with each flash forward the narrative of what must surely have happened kept shifting.

But don't trust us -- have a look for yourself. From a small online newspaper report in South Africa to bulletin boards for Kawasaki motorcycle enthusiasts and Honda Element owners, to a forum on the Discovery Channel Web site and even the mythbusting site Snopes.com, what happened that late September day has become the kind of story legends are made of, plump with colorful details and a few untruths.