ANATOMY OF A SIGHTING: AN OBJECT, REPORTS AND A DOWNED AIRCRAFT 1948

 JULY 7, 1948

A  Kentucky - Control tower and possible ground crew observed something at the south end of the Godman AFB, near Marysville, Kentucky. Object described as: bright white or silver bright, shape was fluid but generally round. Several of the included descriptions support the balloon idea by the descriptions:  like a tear-drop shape,  later the object seemed fluid, and left no trail. 

Witness 33B – described it: “the color changed from white to blue to red to yellow and a black dot in the center at all times.” They also indicated it was like an “Ice Cream Cone topped with red”. A classic balloon description from about late 1947 when balloons adopted a more standardize color system, possibly to aid investigators in tracking them. Many of the early balloon tests did not even have the equipment to adequately track them and depended on news stories to find their missing balloons! [It is amazing the lack of systematic approach used in some of these tests; like children poking a stick at a bug - what would happen if....]

Witness 33A – added it was “like parachute round.”

It was faster than F-51, moving S to W (this would seem to imply a more westerly course creating an arc SW out of Columbus to curve down through Kentucky to Tennessee before it apparently was lost forever. It was, observed for 1 ½ hrs. beginning 1420 hrs. CST. It was labeled incident 330, 33B, 33A, 33. 33g in Project Blue Book.

1:10 p.m. – Madisonville, Kentucky. Object,  moving about 10 mph, “cone shaped”.

1:15 p.m. – Maysville, Kentucky. A sighting. Strange object reported moving west. Details unknown. [Dr. Donald H. Menzel. The World of Flying Saucers. 1963. Pg. 37]

1:35 p.m. – Owensboro and Irvington, Kentucky. Circular object sighted, 250 to 300 feet in diameter, moving west. [Dr. Donald H. Menzel. The World of the Flying Saucer. 1963, pg. 37; he also identifies the period the balloon would have risen to 30,000 and entered a westward moving jet street up to 60,000 feet on a line with these two sightings, pg. 36]]

1:45 p.m. (shortly before) – Godman AFB, Kentucky. Sighted a circular or parachute-shaped object in view for about two hours, slowly moving south. [Dr. Donald H. Menzel. The World of the Flying Saucer. 1963, pg. 37]

2:30 p.m. – Godman AFB area.  A group of four P-51’s  (Mantell, Orner, Blackwell, Carter) are nearing and a request is made for them to check out the object.

2:45 p.m. – Godman AFB area.  Capt. Thomas Mantell radios to tower that  he was at about 15,000 ft. and the object was ahead and above him, moving at half his speed (approx.. 180 mph).  Witness 33 (Mantell), noted it was heading South. one of the other pilots, Quinton Blackwell, noted Mantell said it was  of “tremendous size” and “Seemed metallic”.  Mantell estimated size at about 250-300 feet, circular, in the area of Maysville, Kentucky.  About 1445 (or 1445 or 2:45) the Flight Leader Mantell  NG 269 noted the object was ahead and climbing toward 33,000 ft.

t is reported in the official file that he said “I’m going to 20,000” although there are some who point out that when the primary witness to the event cannot speak for himself all that is left is essentially hearsay.  It is, however, all that modern researchers have to go on. 

3:15 p.m. –Godman AFB area  - Mantell  is reported to have also said: “I’m going to try to close in for a better look.” These are believed to be his last words.  Other planes search 100 miles south and could not find the object.  

Exact time unknown. State Police reported an object 100 feet from top to the bottom and 43 feet across and about 4 miles up traveling SW at about 10 mph (balloons customarily travel at a slow and steady pace unless the balloon lasts long enough to lift it into a jet stream or other fast moving upper air currents).

3:18 p.m. – Mantell’s plane crashes Simson County, south of Franklin, Kentucky. Cause of death attributed to hypoxia (loss of oxygen) and leading to the crash.

3:50 – Godman Ground Crew watched the object disappear from view. Menzel says minutes later observers further south in Kentucky and Tennessee were reporting an unknown in the sky [Dr. Donald H. Menzel. The World of the Flying Saucer. 1963, pg. 37

4:00 p.m. – Madisonville, Kentucky. Strange object through binoculars identified as balloon. According to Menzel, this sighting would have been when the balloon had climbed to 60,000 feet and entered a swift moving jet stream headed - south. [Dr. Donald H. Menzel. The World of the Flying Saucer. 1963, pg. 36-38].

4:30 – 4:40 (1630-16450 hrs.) or 4:45 p.m. (time varies in accounts) – Nashville, Tennessee. An astronomer saw an object with a basket (an assumed equipment package of the balloon) SSE of Nashville. It first moved SSE then turned W at about 10 mph, at an estimated 25,000 ft. 

Post Crash – Godman AFB reported a large light in the sky approximate location of earlier light. The Lockbourne Tower and Clinton County Tower advised a great ball of light was moving SW across the sky. The St. Louis tower later advised seeing a great ball f light passing overhead. They advised Air Defense via Olmsted alerted to Coffeeville, KS., Ft. Smith and Kansas City, Missouri of an object moving WSW at 250 mph.

Air Defense Command (ADC) requested the file on the Godman incident be sent to them at Michel Field, Hampstead, NY “ASAP.”  Attached to that was a mention of other events: “At St. Louis ATC advised of an article from Edwardsville, Illinois at 07200 an object of aluminum appearance without any wings or control surfaces  moving SW.” It remained visible for 30 minutes.  “The article went on to describe the amazement and wonder of the editor -.”   Of interest is that as late 1964 the file was being used.  IN July 1964 a letter came to the office of Project Blue Book about a recent crash of a P-51 in Oregon where a pilot over 20,000 ft. lost oxygen and crashed.

5:00 p.m. – Lockbourne AFB, Columbus, Ohio. Round, glowing amber object sighted on southwest horizon in horizontal flight; in view about 20 minutes, then disappeared below horizon. [Dr. Donald H. Menzel. The World of the Flying Saucer. 1963, pg. 37]

5:00 p.m. – Columbus, Ohio at Lockbourne AFB – a sighting of the Planet Venus. 1 page in the Blue Book files on a form issued in 1952. One source noted that at the time of the alleged sighting the planet was at a stellar magnitude of a -3.4; meaning it would have been visible, if at all, only as a speck of light through the cloud cover [Dr. Donald H. Menzel. The World of the Flying Saucer. 1963, pg. 36]

7:00 p.m. (1920 – 1950 hrs.) –Wilmington, Ohio. Incident #48. First appearance of object was “flare-like”; fire like color riding thermals (up and down); stars in the sky white or yellow or flame. Very high altitude. Moved slow due West from Clinton Co. Army Air Field.  Second witness at 1930 hours in control tower saw a triangular shape rocking; it had red and green colors. Triangle was red, when it descended the broad end of triangle was up and a green light seemed to stream out. Color fluctuated: 1st white then red; witness thought it not a balloon or aircraft. There is a see also” notation about Incident # 30 n-c – Lockbourne AFB. 

7:25 p.m. (1925 hrs.)- Columbus Ohio, Lockbourne AFB. Object observed for approximately 15 minutes, large, it was viewed both aerially and from the ground, it “descended”.  1 page report on a form produced starting 1952.

7:50 (1952 hrs.) – Columbus, Ohio, Case # 32, Jan. 7, 1948. 1 page file on a form produced starting 1952. A USAF Plot in the air reported one amber colored object, “like a large star or planet”, “seemed stationary.”  “Considering the incident with #32, 33, 48 one is forced to conclude that object observed from Lockbourne…was the planet Venus.”  One report of the incident lists the location of the object as ESS – 120 degrees or approximately opposite from those stated by the other witnesses and the planet Venus. “Obviously since the time  of observation was the same, this means that one witness either was looking at a different object or had his directions mixed.  Since is is assumed throughout the report that all observers were viewing the same object, the later interpretation seems probable.”

10:20 p.m. – Gorman AFB. Mentioned but details unclear. 

11:30 p.m. – Cartersville, Georgia. Jan. 8, 1948. Circular object with flat top (pot shaped), course 175 degrees magnitude, observed by pilot on a flight from St. Louis to Atlanta flying at 3,000 ft.  He described the object as light, sky blue in color, traveling about 400 mph and at about his own 3,000 ft. The object crossed the path of the witness and all that could be observed was an intense blue flame, in a something closely resembling an exhaust pipe. As it crossed the path of the plane, the flame sputtered and turned downward. The pilot never saw it land or hit the ground. He had served in England and associated the flame like that seen on what the RAF called “buzz bombs”. There was, however, no long trailing flame like with a meteor object instead he said it was like looking down a smoke stack or a pipe – a concentrated intense blue flame.  

What is clear once all the stories are considered, all these reported sightings surveyed, that  there was more than one object seen and reported. For some reason, it was important to keep details of this sighting obscured by calling it Venus. The frequency of left hand apparently not knowing actions of right hand during this time period - because if the Air Force did not know what was going on in the skies overhead as they were supposed to, then secrets were being kept from everyone. The danger these actions produced to the public, to aircraft is mind numbing.