The Thomas Mantell UFO Incident

Om January 7, 1948, a United States Air Force Pilot named Thomas Mantell would perish after chasing an Unidentified Flying object in the sky. Captain Thomas Mantell was a WWII hero and an experienced pilot. While the military would conclude that Mantell died from oxygen deprivation, many that day, including hundreds of civilians would report seeing a UFO. Since then, many have questioned what happened that day.

At 1:20 pm on January 7, 1948, the control tower at Godman Field Army Air Force located in Fort Knox would spot an unidentified flying object getting close to the base. 

During this time, Thomas Mantell was doing routine training around the Base area. He was leading 4 four P-51 fighters on the mission. In the control tower it wasn’t clear what the object was, and many began speculating. Soon, senior officials were called and the control tower decided to have Mantell, and others investigate. 

Sometime before 2:45 pm, Mantell would receive the orders to investigate the unknown object. Mantell confirmed and began heading the direction. In a short time, with Mantell leading, the group would ascend to 15,000 feet. 

While Captain Mantell and the three planes began heading toward the coordinates of the craft, only Captain Mantell would end up chasing the object and getting close. The first plane would break away as it needed to refuel. In the second plane, the pilot believed he was going to get lost as his plane wasn’t equipped to fly at high altitudes.   He asked to return to base and Mantell allowed him. Mantell would ask the third plane to join the second to ensure a safe return. 

At this point, a solo Mantell pursued the craft. Mantell kept ascending and soon radioed the tower that he had a visual on the object. He stated:

“It appears to be a metallic object or possible reflections of sun from a metallic object, and it is of tremendous size. I’m still climbing. The object is above and ahead of me moving at my speed or faster. I’m trying to close in for a better look.”

Mantell continued pursuing the craft and around 3:30 stated that he would fly around 10 more minutes to 25,000 feet.

At 3:50, the tower lost visual of the object. 

Around 4-4:30 pm, the tower would receive a few gargled messages from Captain Mantell. They have been described as indecipherable over the years, but some say he communicated back he saw beings in the craft. 

Sometime around 4-5 pm, more reports started to surface from non-civilians around a UFO in the sky. 

At 5pm, it was discovered that the Mantell had crashed, and this is where the mystery begins. 

What happened to Captain Thomas Mantell in those final minutes has been a hotly debated topic. 

The United States Air Force would report that as he climbed to 25,000 feet Mantell would pass out. The report concludes that the plane went to 30,000 feet before suddenly plunging straight down. It is believed that he never regained consciousness during the ordeal as debris showed no attempt to abandon the plane. The USAF also stated that the UFO certainly did not cause the crash. 

However, many question the report for several reasons.

First, is that numerous witnesses saw the UFO sometime before Mantell crashed his plane. Kentucky residents began calling 

Kentucky state police offices in the morning and calls happened throughout the early afternoon. So many were received that the Fort Knox military were notified. 

In a Jan. 6, 2005, article by Turret Editor Larry Barnes, he wrote that at least several hundred people had called in the UFO by 1:15. In addition, he noted how clear and calm the weather was, with visibility for at least 10 miles.

In addition to the hundreds of non-military who saw the craft, several military officers at the base described what they saw. 

Quinton Blackwell and Stanley Oliver, would, like many eyewitnesses describe the object as an upside-down ice cream cone. 

One other witness was Operations officer Gary Carter. He said the object was plainly visible in the afternoon sky.

Another witness Captain James F Duesler who was second in command on the base that day, reported on the day of the crash, he was asked to go to the control tower. When he arrived, he was directed to look out in the sky. There, he would see a shiny silver object hovering in the sky. It had the shape of an upside-down ice cream cone.  The largest part pointed toward the ground and the narrow part toward the sky. 

It looked like it was rotating and had a black line running top to bottom and was reddish toward the bottom. 

There are still many questions surrounding the events that day. For one, what was Captain Mantell chasing and also what did everyone see? 

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While the military report seems very dismissive of the UFO the fact is many civilians and military saw something. 

There have been several hypotheses around what the object was. 

One is that they saw a Skyhook Balloon. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, under a top-secret program the US was developing high altitude balloons that came to be known as Skyhook balloons. It’s said Captain Mantell wouldn’t have been aware of these. While some have suggested this, others disagree adamantly. 

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For one, there were hundreds of witnesses that spotted the object, and many were able to give detailed descriptions. The descriptions didn’t align with what a skyhook balloon looks like.

Balloons have a long history being associated with UFOs. Around 6 months earlier in 1947, the most famous UFO case in human history occurred in Roswell, New Mexico. 

As many reports began to surface around a UFO crash, the government would soon attribute the strange object to be a balloon. 

While there have been balloons mistaken for UFO’s, this case is very unique in that both military personnel, who would be able easily id a balloon, and civilians spotted a strange object in the sky.

One question concerning the Balloon theory is why would a top-secret project be testing so close to civilians and also near the control tower? Some have argued that it flew off course, but wouldn’t they have notified Fort Knox personnel? 

Some have speculated the object was actually the planet Venus. Over the years this theory has become less popular though. 

The other popular theory of course is that the object was a UFO. There are many reasons to believe this is a strong possibility. The large number of witnesses including people in the control tower, witnesses on the ground and the Mantell himself noted the object was flying as least as fast as him. Mantell had logged over 2500 hours of flight time and surely would know a balloon could not travel that fast. 

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The final question concerns the crash. 

Did the UFO attack the captain? 

Manh have speculated that it did. It’s important to point out that the military kept much of the event as classified, so even if this did happen, it most likely would have never come to light. The captain was surely a skilled pilot, and we’ve seen cases like this as well. Frederich Valentich was a pilot who witnessed a UFO and soon after perished (Read about it here). 

The event wasn’t helped by the fact that the government was very dismissive of UFOs at the time. Without question, much of the event and investigation around the crash has not been made public. This eliminates the possibility of having independent analyses done on the crash.

Even if the UFO didn’t attack and crash Mantell’s plane, it’s very probable that something was in the sky that day, something that wasn’t a balloon.