Most often, having seen "it is not clear what" in the sky, pilots try to stay away from it. But some, on the contrary, go for rapprochement. What drives them - curiosity? Striving to snatch another grain of knowledge from the world? It almost always ends tragically. The pilot Thomas Mantell was the first to risk his life in his quest to learn the truth.
UFO - "Ice Cream Bowl"
On January 7, 1948, alarm calls began to arrive at the Maysville police station. Residents reported seeing a strange object 250-300 feet in diameter (about 100m) in the sky over the city. Someone described it as a canopy of a parachute, someone like a cone, someone like an "ice cream bowl".
The Maysville Police Commissioner has reported a flying ice cream bowl to Godman Air Force Base, providing air security for a critical facility. (The site was Fort Knox, which houses the US gold reserve.) Soon, similar reports of a flying cone from Irvington and Owensboro arrived at the airbase. The object moved slowly towards the fort.
The dispatcher Sergeant Blackwell, having received the first message at 1:20 pm, first of all contacted the nearby Wright-Patterson airbase: was there any experimental aircraft taking off from it? The answer was negative.
Trouble at Godman AFB
Promotional video:
At 13:45, the sergeant saw the object with his own eyes. In addition to him, UFOs were observed by two more dispatchers located on the tower. Subsequently, they described the UFO as "a round metal object, the lower part of which gleamed red."
Unable to identify the object, the sergeant reported it to his immediate commander. At 14:20, the chief of the operations department, Captain Carey Carter, the commander of the air base, Colonel Guy Hicks, and a dozen other officers of lower rank were already on the tower. And they all watched a slowly flying UFO through binoculars.
At this time, 4 P-51 Mustang fighters flew towards the base, which were transferred from one base to another. The sergeant contacted the head of the group, Captain Thomas Mantell, and relayed the order from Colonel Hicks to find out what the hell was flying in the sky near the base.
Chasing UFOs
One plane is running out of fuel and leaves the group. Three fighters are sent towards the UFO; they start to climb. Pilots Hammond and Clements stop pursuing: the altitude is 15,000 meters, they do not have oxygen masks (it was an ordinary ferry, which did not provide for a flight at such an altitude), they are running out of fuel. Mantell is left alone and reports that he intends to climb to 20,000 feet.
Captain Mantell was a participant in World War II, was distinguished by his composure, and in the most critical situations he took balanced judgments. If he made the decision to continue the persecution, then he saw something really worth seeing.
Captain Mantell reporting
“The object is in front of me. Moves at a speed two times less than mine. The object looks metallic, of enormous size. The object is gaining speed and altitude. I decide to continue the persecution. I'll try to get closer."
At 15:15, radio communication with Thomas Mantell was cut off.
At 15:20, the UFO disappeared from view of the observers, hiding behind the clouds.
At 15:25, pilot Clements lifts his P-51 into the air. His plane is refueled, the pilot is equipped with an oxygen mask for flights at high altitudes. However, the pilot did not find either the UFO or the commander.
Life for the sake of knowledge
Experts who arrived at the crash site restored the circumstances of Mantella's death. The pilot lost consciousness from lack of oxygen. The unguided plane went into a dive, which turned into an indiscriminate fall, and collapsed while still in the air. The pilot's death was quick and easy - Thomas died from hitting the ground without regaining consciousness, his body was found in the cockpit.
The Air Force command officially announced the version of the pilot's death: Mantell and the other pilots were chasing Venus, mistaking the planet for a UFO (such cases did take place). However, astronomers categorically reject this version: on that day Venus was only 33 degrees above the horizon, and all the pilots who observed the UFO from the control tower clearly stated that the UFO they observed could not be a planet.
The opinion expressed by military investigators on the sidelines that Mantell "died trying to overtake a controlled UFO" was not voiced.
Lost Time Riddle
Mantella's plane crashed at 16:45. The watch on the pilot's hand stopped at 15:16. What happened to Captain Mantella during those one and a half hours? What?