The Mantell Incident – First Military Confrontation of an UFO

Aliens have been visiting our planet for more than thousands of years. However the first incident of a military confrontation with the extraterrestrials was recorded in 1948 by the United States. The US military lost its military pilot in the incident and the government did not know how to react to this unforeseen event. This was one of the most publicized, controversial and significant incidents of early UFO sightings, which changed the perception of the people towards the UFOs.

On January 7, 1948, at 1:15 PM, the control towers at the Godman Air Force Base located near Louisville, Kentucky received a call from Kentucky State Highway Patrol which had reports from residents of Maysville of sightings of an strange, unusual aircraft hovering in the sky. The Godman Tower got it confirmed from Flight Service at Wright-Patterson AFB and found that there was no experimental flights in the region. They only had a B-29 and an A-26 on photo missions in that area. The Kentuky state police called again 20 minutes later saying that residents of Owensboro and Irvington, Kentucky, were reporting a strange craft. They described that the object was circular 250 to 300 feet in diameter due West at a good pace. The Godman Tower checked the Flight Service again but found nothing. The tower operators who were looking for the reported object finally saw it at 1:45 PM. They called Flight Operations as soon as they assured themselves that the unidentified flying object was neither an airplane nor a weather balloon.

At 2:30 PM four F 51 Mustang fighters were approaching the Air Force Base enroute from Marietta, Georgia to Standiford Field, Louisville, Kentucky. The tower called the flight leader, Captain Thomas F. Mantell (in NG 3869 lead ship) and requested to try to identify the object. One of the four planes was low on fuel and asked for a permission to go to his base, while Mantell and his remaining wingmen (Lt. Buford A. Hammond and Lt. Albert W. Clements) headed towards the object. Clements recalls that Mantell was way ahead and by the time the they reached 10,000 feet, he was barely visible. Mantell called the tower at 2:45 PM and said "I see something above and ahead of me and I'm still climbing." Clements then called back and asked "What the hell are we looking for?" Mantel replied that the object was directly ahead and above of him, moving about half of his speed. Clements was able to see a small bright appearing object, very distant to be unable to identify its size, shape and color. The tower immediately asked Mantell to describe the object. Mantell replied but nobody remembers exactly what he answered. Saucer historians believe he said "I've sighted the thing. It looks metallic and it's tremendous in size.... Now it's starting to climb." Few seconds later he called "It's above me and I'm gaining on it. I'm going to 20,000 feet." Mantell mentioned going to 20,000 ft and if they could not go closer to the object would abandon the chase. Mantell was climbing at combat max rate/speed. Clements was close to Mantell but Hammond did not had oxygen and had leveled off to 15,000 feet. He was felling difficulties of hypoxia and by the time Clements reached 22,000 feet, Hammond was feeling dizzy. He contacted Clements by radio and considering the perils of anoxia, they turned back to their base at Standiford Field. They were worried and trying frantically to call Mantell who went out of their sight. Their calls went unanswered and Mantell never talked to anyone again. Lt. Clements then got his plane refueled, and serviced with oxygen and took off to investigate again. However, he saw nothing.

The tower lost the sight of the UFO at 3:50 PM, while they got the news that Mantell had crashed a few minutes later. Several hours later at 7:20 PM, about a dozen of airfield towers reported sightings of UFO low on the Southwestern horizon and disappearing after about twenty minutes, however the Air Force said that it was planet Venus. Project Sign was the first Air Force research group assigned to investigate UFO reports. It investigated the Mantell Crash and in order to provide a quick answer to the incident, the officials in Project Sign reported that Mantell had unfortunately been killed trying to reach the planet Venus. The Air Force reported that once Mantell reached 25,000 feet, he passed out due to lack of oxygen (hypoxia or anoxia) and lost control of his aircraft. The Mustang began decending in a spiral picking up speed and completed two spirals. At 10,000 feet Mantell regained consciousness and tried to throttle back but the plane broke down at Mach limit, the engine overheated and the plane dived vertically. It crashed in a farm after a flat spin 4 miles South of Franklin, Kentuky landing on its belly. The firemen later pulled Mantell's body from the wreckage. His seat belt was shredded, and his wristwatch had stopped at 3:18 PM, the time of his crash. A police officer Joe Walker who took charge at the scene of the accident learned that the aircraft had exploded in the mid air before it hit the ground, but, the aircraft did not burn upon contact with the ground. The wreckage was scattered over an area of one mile. The mystery UFO chase died with him.

The Air Force released an official report on the incident one year later. It reported that the UFO might have been Venus of even a balloon. Venus was a strong suspect because it was in almost the same spot in the sky as the UFO. At 3:00 PM, Venus had been Southwest of Godman and 33 degrees above the southern horizon while at 3:00 PM the tower operators estimated the UFO to be Southwest of Godman and at an elevation of about 45 degrees. Allowing for human error in estimating directions and angles, this was pretty close. However, there was a big flaw in the theory. On January 7, 1948, the brilliance of planet Venus was six times that of the surrounding sky. Venus wasn't bright enough to be seen because it's practically impossible to find a light only six time as bright as the surrounding sky even in a clear day. It was clear the Air Force was unsuccessfully trying to cover up something important, using Venus as a shield.

All other theories including the Venus theory was rejected. The only possibility was that either the object was a real UFO or US Navy Skyhook weather balloon. The Skyhook balloon project was highly classified at that time and neither Mantell nor the other observers in the air control tower would have been able to identify the UFO as a Skyhook balloon because they did not had the information. The Skyhook balloons were made of reflective aluminum, and were about 100 feet (30 m) in diameter. This is consistent with Mantell's description of a large metallic object. A large balloon could be visible for 50 to 60 miles and a Skyhook balloon was visible even at an altitude of 60,000 feet. Located at Wright Field, the group who supervise the contracts for all the Skyhook research flights for the Air Force had no records on flights in 1948 but they did think that the big balloons were being launched from Clinton County Air Force Base in southern Ohio at that time. The military have pretty good records on all the launches but they never could establish a launch date for that day.

There were several reported sightings of UFO on the fateful day in the region including Madisonville and Owensboro when Captian Mantell died. All the possible theories of US Skyhook balloon was eventually rejected. The most recent launch of US Skyhook balloon Flight B launched by General Mills in Minnesota happened to be at 8:00 AM on January 6, 1948, and it was too far away on the next day to be noticed by Mantell and his wingmen. The Skyhook balloon was in Tennessee near Nashville at the time of the UFO sightings on January 7. Mantells case was covered up and declared as unsolved, and is still unsolved till today.

Captian Thomas Francis Mantell Jr. (30 June 1922 – 7 January 1948)

Captian Thomas Francis Mantell Jr. was born in Franklin, Kentucky. After graduating from Male High School, in Louisville, he joined the Army Air Corps on June 16, 1942 and graduated from the Flight School on 30 June 1943. He was assigned to 440th Troop Carrier Group, 96th Troop Carrier Squadron, 9th Air Force during World War II. He was a distinguished pilot and was awarded Distinguished Flying Cross for courageous action during the Normandy landings, and an Air Medal with three Oak leaf clusters for heroism. After the war, Mantell returned to Louisville and joined the newly organized Kentucky Air National Guard as Flight Leader, “C” Flight, 165th Fighter Squadron on 16 February 1947.

Mantell had been flying F 51 Mustangs since past seven months. He had about 3,000 flying hours, of which 1,608 hours were pilot-flight time, out of which 67 hours was in F 51 Mustang. The F 51 Mustang was the one of the best fighters in US Army during the World War II. With an excellent range and maneuverability the Mustangs could climb up to 42,000 feet.

Newspapers reported that Mantell was shot down by a magnetic ray from a flying saucer. He was the first person ever to die while pursuing an unidentified flying object. The resulted in major shift towards the perception to extraterrestrials and UFOs. They started to be considered as hostile and were no longer perceived harmless.

Flight Profile of Captian Mantell

Time CST	Miles From Godman	Altitude (Feet)	Climb Rate (Feet/Min)	Ground Speed MPH	Landmark
01:42 PM	289	0	0	0 - 300	First two F51's take off from Marietta AAF, Georgia.
01:43 PM	289	0	0	0 - 300	Last two F51's take off from Marietta AAF, Georgia.
02:50 PM	10	5000	0	300	Position report, ~30 mi SW (~SSW) of Standiford AAF, Louisville, KY (~10 mi S of Godman).
02:52 PM	0	5000	3000	180	Mantell and his men enter max climb spiral directly over Godman Tower.
02:53 PM	0	8000	3000	180	Still in climb over Godman.
02:55 PM	0	14000	3000	180	Leveled out from spiral climb vectored straight SSW to 210.
03:00 PM	25	17000	600	300	Max range F51 visible from Godman with unaided eye.
03:08 PM	65	21800	600	300	Near Bowling Green airport.
03:09 PM	70	22400	600	300	Clements abandons Mantell, who now climbs at combat max rate/speed.
03:11 PM	79	25000	2000	240	Mantell passes out, loses control of the plane which begins descending in a spiral.
03:12 PM	83	23000	-2000	240	Picks up speed.
03:13 PM	87	21000	-2000	300	1st spiral complete.
03:15 PM	-92	17000	-3000	350	2nd spiral complete.
03:17 PM	-92	10000	-10000	500 to 200	Mantell regains consciousness, tries to throttle back. Plane breaks up at Mach limit, engine overheats, vertical dive then flat spin.
03:18 PM	92	0	0	0	Impact 4 miles South of Franklin, KY. Plane hard lands on belly.