{"it":{"id":"UFO-MAN1948","name":"Mantell UFO incident","kind":"ufo","sub":"Historical sighting","place":"Godman Field, Fort Knox, Kentucky, USA","lat":37.0,"lon":-85.9,"date":"1948-01-07","rep":"Witnesses reported a large metallic object.","off":"USAF: he chased a Navy Skyhook balloon and blacked out from lack of oxygen.","src":[{"t":"Wikipedia: Mantell UFO incident","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantell_UFO_incident"},{"t":"AARO, Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with UAP, Vol. 1 (Mar 2024)","u":"https://media.defense.gov/2024/Mar/08/2003409233/-1/-1/0/DOPSR-CLEARED-508-COMPLIANT-HRRV1-08-MAR-2024-FINAL.PDF"}],"tags":["Sightings"],"sum":"On 7 January 1948 a Kentucky Air National Guard pilot died chasing something in the sky. The object has never been firmly identified.\n\nCaptain Thomas Mantell, born in Franklin, Kentucky, was leading a training flight of P-51 Mustangs. The tower at Godman Field directed him to pursue an unidentified flying object. He climbed after it and died when his plane crashed near Franklin. The story made headlines across the country and became part of the Air Force's Project Sign. A historical marker near the site says it \"is still uncertain\" what he was chasing.\n\nWhat is hard to explain is what people saw. State police had reports of an object \"circular, about 250 to 300 feet in diameter\", moving west at \"a pretty good clip\".\n\nEdward Ruppelt, later head of Project Blue Book, wrote that the Air Force first said Mantell had died chasing the planet Venus, and that this answer stood for about a year. He then concluded that the object was probably one of the huge Skyhook balloons, matching the tower's descriptions of a parachute and an ice-cream cone. He also noted reports from a man in Madisonville and an astronomer near Nashville who saw a balloon through telescopes. The researcher Francis Ridge, who took up the case again from 2006 to 2010, rejects the balloon. He wrote that \"no one would describe a balloon of any kind\" the way the police reports did.\n\nCan a balloon fool a pilot and a control tower at once?","nsrc":2,"new":1,"qs":["The Air Force first blamed Venus, then switched to a classified balloon. If the first explanation was wrong, why trust the second?","Mantell died chasing something a secret program may have launched. How many UFO cases are really cover for classified tech?","Witnesses put the object at 250 to 300 feet across. Could a balloon fool an experienced pilot and a control tower at once?"],"yt":"Check Skyhook's size and the P-51's oxygen limits against the timeline.","rel":["GOV-PBB"],"hook":"On 7 January 1948 Thomas Mantell died chasing an object 250 to 300 feet across.","why":"A pilot died chasing a UFO in 1948. The Air Force blamed Venus, then a balloon."},"S":{},"rec":{"id":"UFO-MAN1948","qs":["The Air Force first blamed Venus, then a balloon. Why trust the second answer?","Witnesses put the object at 250 to 300 feet across. Could a balloon look like that?","Could secret projects lie behind many early UFO cases?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Capt._Mantell_Marker.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Capt._Mantell_Marker.jpg","title":"Capt. Mantell Marker.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","by":"Mark S. Hilton","alt":"Capt. Mantell Marker"},{"src":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Kentucky_National_Guard_portrait_of_Captain_Thomas_F._Mantell_Jr.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kentucky_National_Guard_portrait_of_Captain_Thomas_F._Mantell_Jr.jpg","title":"Kentucky National Guard portrait of Captain Thomas F. Mantell Jr.jpg","lic":"Public domain","by":"Kentucky National Guard","alt":"Kentucky National Guard portrait of Captain Thomas F. Mantell Jr"}],"ms":[],"aa":[],"ac":[],"src":[{"t":"Wikipedia: Mantell UFO incident","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantell_UFO_incident"},{"t":"AARO, Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with UAP, Vol. 1 (Mar 2024)","u":"https://media.defense.gov/2024/Mar/08/2003409233/-1/-1/0/DOPSR-CLEARED-508-COMPLIANT-HRRV1-08-MAR-2024-FINAL.PDF"},{"id":"VUFO-MAN1948-3","t":"Historical Marker Database: Mantell UFO incident marker","u":"https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=239316"},{"id":"VUFO-MAN1948-4","t":"NICAP: The Mantell Incident (PDF; believer-side source)","u":"https://nicap.org/books/Mantell_Incident/The_Mantell_Incident.pdf"}],"pts":[{"p":"Godman Field tower received the call at about 13:15.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Mantell UFO incident","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantell_UFO_incident"},{"p":"Witnesses estimated the object at 250–300 ft across.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Mantell UFO incident","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantell_UFO_incident"},{"p":"Mantell's P-51 crash was reported at 15:50 near Franklin, Kentucky.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Mantell UFO incident","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantell_UFO_incident"},{"p":"Blue Book (1952) attributed it to a classified Skyhook balloon.","g":"VERIFIED","b":"V","t":"Wikipedia: Mantell UFO incident","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantell_UFO_incident"}]},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":null,"hs":{},"lh":{"s":"img/h/UFO-MAN1948.webp","w":1280,"h":960,"o":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Capt._Mantell_Marker.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original"}}