Mantell Incident

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The so-called Mantell Incident is among the most publicised early UFO reports: the crash and death of 25-year-old Kentucky Air National Guard pilot, Captain Thomas F. Mantell, on 7 January 1948, while in pursuit of a UFO.

Historian David Michael Jacobs argues the Mantell case marked a sharp shift in both public and governmental perceptions of UFOs. Previously, mass media often treated UFO reports with a whimsical or glib attitude reserved for silly season news. Following Mantell’s death, however, Jacobs notes "the fact that a person had dramatically died in an encounter with an alleged flying saucer dramatically increased public concern about the phenomenon. Now a dramatic new prospect entered thought about UFO’s: they might be not only extraterrestrial but potentially hostile as well." (Jacobs, 45)

1 Overview
2 Analyses
3 External links
4 Sources

[edit] Overview

Mantell was an experienced pilot; his total flight history consisted of 2,167 hours. His sister avowed Mantell had been honored for his part in the Battle of Normandy during WW II. [1]

That day in 1948, the Fort Knox airfield received a report from the Kentucky State Highway Patrol of an unusual aerial object near Maysville, Kentucky. Reports of a westbound circular object, 250 to 300 feet in diameter, were made from Owensboro, Kentucky, and Irvington, Kentucky.

At about 1:45 p.m., Sgt Quinton Blackwell saw an object from his position in the Fort Knox airfield control tower. Two other witnesses in the tower also reported a white object in the distance. Base commander Colonel Guy Hix reported an object he described as "very white," and "about one fourth the size of the full moon ... Through binoculars it appeared to have a red border at the bottom ... It remained stationary, seemingly, for one and a half hours."

Four F-51 Mustangs already in the air--one piloted by Mantell--were told to approach the object. Sgt Blackwell was in radio communication with the pilots throughout the event.

One pilot's Mustang was low on fuel, and he quickly abandoned his efforts. Mantell reportedly described a "metallic object or possibly reflection of sun from a metallic object, and it is of tremendous size" above him, and reported its speed at about 180 miles per hour. Air Force Major Edward J. Ruppelt (the first head of Project Blue Book) notes that there was some disagreement amongst the air traffic controllers as to Mantell's words. Though it has become all but enshrined in retellings of the Mantell Incident, not all contemporary witnesses in the air control tower agreed he had indeed described a massive metallic object.

As Ruppelt writes, "By the time the F-51's had climbed to 10,000 feet, the two wing men later reported, Mantell had pulled out ahead of them and they could just barely see him. At two forty-five, Mantell called the tower and said, 'I see something above and ahead of me and I'm still climbing.' All the people in the tower heard Mantell say this and they heard one of the wing men call back and ask, 'What the hell are we looking for?' The tower immediately called Mantell and asked him for a description of what he saw. Odd as it may seem, no one can remember exactly what he answered. Saucer historians have credited him with saying, 'I've sighted the thing. It looks metallic and it's tremendous in size.... Now it's starting to climb.' Then in a few seconds he is supposed to have called and said, 'It's above me and I'm gaining on it. I'm going to 20,000 feet.' Everyone in the tower agreed on this one last bit of the transmission, 'I'm going to 20,000 feet,' but didn't agree on the first part, about the UFO's being metallic and tremendous."[2]

The other two pilots accompanied Mantell in steep pursuit of the object. They later reported they saw an object, but described it as so small and indistinct they could not identify it. Mantell ignored suggestions that the pilots should level their altitude and try to more clearly see the object.

Only one of Mantell's companions, Lt. Albert Clemmons, had an oxygen mask, and his oxygen was in low supply. Clemmons and a Lt. Hammond called off their pursuit at 22,500 feet. Mantell continued, however. It was presumed that Mantell lost consciousness due to lack of oxygen at the high altititude. A witness later reported Mantell's Mustang in a circling descent, and Clark notes that two independent witnesses asserted that Mantell's plane exploded shortly before it struck the ground. His plane crashed at a farm.

Firemen later pulled Mantell's body from the Mustang's wreckage. His wristwatch had stopped at 3:18 p.m., the time of his crash. At 3:50 p.m., the object was no longer visible to Goodman or the others in the control tower. The Mantell Incident was reported by news outlets, and received significant mainstream attention.

[edit] Analyses

The Air Force's Project Sign ruled that Mantell had misidentified the planet Venus, and had passed out at high altitude. This report was later changed (because Venus was in roughly the same position as the alleged UFO, but the planet would have been nearly invisible to an observer). The cause of Mantell's crash remains officially listed as undetermined.

J. Allen Hynek suggested Mantel had misidentified a navy Skyhook weather balloon. Others disputed this idea, noting that no particular Skyhook balloon could be conclusively identified as being in the area in question during Mantell's pursuit as the launch records could not be located. Despite its shortcomings, others thought the Skyhook solution was plausible: the balloons were a secret Navy project at the time of Mantell's crash, were made of reflective aluminum, and were about 100 feet in diameter, perhaps consistent with Mantell's decription of a large metallic object, and may furthermore be consistent with the motions reported by the other UFO witnesses.

Mantell was flying on a heading of approximately 220 degrees (Klass 1974:37) and at the time Venus was south-southwest (225 degrees, plus or minus 22 degrees), 33 degrees above the horizon, and moving slowly across the sky. This was similar to the description given by the tower crew. A problem, though, is that Venus was only half of its maximum brightness, so it would be hard to see against a bright sky (Peebles 1994:21). A subsequent investigation showed that the description of the object closely matched that of a secret high-altitude Skyhook balloon, and that on or about January 7, 1948 Skyhook balloons were launched from Clinton County, Ohio, which is about 150 miles northeast of the Mantell chase. (Klass 1974:34-39).

Others noted that while Mantell was an experienced pilot, he was rather new to the F-51, and that this relative inexperience could have been a factor in the crash.

Unconfirmed rumors have circulated (initially spread by Donald Keyhoe) stating that Air Force officials suspected Mantell's Mustang had been shot or otherwise damaged by an extraterrestrial spacecraft, and that officials suppressed these reports.

[edit] External links

[edit] Sources

Jerome Clark; The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial; Visible Ink, 1998; ISBN 1-57859-029-9
David Michael Jacobs; The UFO Controversy In America; Indiana University Press, 1975; ISBN 0-253-19006-1
Philip J. Klass. (1974). UFOs Explained, Random House, hardback ISBN 0-394-49215-3 Vintage Books paperback, ISBN 0-394-72106-3.
Curtis Peebles. (1994). Watch the Skies! A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth, Smithsonian Institution, ISBN 1-56098-343-4.