Flying Saucers UFO Reports

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

# "I'm Still Climbing..."

This photo, used here only for illustrative purposes and not related to the story material, was snapped by Deputy Sheriff Arthur Stranch, Sibley Co., Minn., at 6:10 p.m. Oct. 21, 1965, near St. George, Minn. UFO was described as having four lighted portholes below central dome; changed color from orange to bright white; made sound like electric transformer. Photo (from APRO Bulletin) was shot when object was in slight motion, just before it accelerated.

On file with Project Blue Book is the account of an early sighting fatality that has baffled UFO historians since news of it was first flashed to a shocked public in 1948 with the words "F-51 AND CAPT. MANTELL DESTROYED CHASING FLYING SAUCER."

The death and the puzzling circumstances surrounding it are referred to today as The Mantell Incident, but at the moment of the first sighting, 1:20 p.m., January 7, 1948, Captain Thomas Mantell was on a ferry mission, more than an hour away from knowledge of the tragedy which fate had in store for him.

A bright disc shaped object had been seen by the tower crew at Godman Field, Ky. Unable to identify it, the crew brought the object to the attention of the Base Operations Officer, Base Intelligence Officer and, eventually, Base Commander. Flight Commander Captain Mantell flew over the field at 2:45 p.m. and was requested to investigate the UFO, which by this time had drawn the attention of, and queries from, people in Maysville and Owensboro, Ky., several of whom described the object as "circular" as much as "300 feet in diameter" and "moving at a pretty good clip."

Mantell, accompanied by two wing men, all flying F51s, set off in pursuit and at 10,000 feet, Mantell called the tower to report "I see something above and ahead of me and I'm still climbing."

The other two wing men leveled off at 15,000 feet and

turned back. Neither they nor Mantell were outfitted for flights requiring oxygen and any height above 15,000 feet could be disastrous. They had tried to contact Mantell by radio but without success and he was still climbing. His last words to the tower were: "I'm going to 20,000 feet."

In Major Donald Keyhoe's book Flying Saucers From Outer Space, it was reported that the Air Force refused to release photos of the wreckage and the body "out of respect for the feelings of Mantell's relatives." But the secrecy surrounding the crash set off a flood of rumors that the body had been "pierced by a mysterious ray," and even more sensationally that, "no body had been found at all. Mantell had been spirited away by unknown spacemen."

A few minutes later, 90 miles from the tower, Mantell's plane was seen to have "exploded in mid-air." It disintegrated before it struck ground and the answer as to what had prompted Mantell's last words "I'm still climbing . . ." despite the knowledgeable pilot's awareness that death could result, was forever sealed in his lifeless body.

These rumors were quickly scotched by the ATIC (Air Technical Intelligence Center) and its report was filed with what then was known as Project Sign and is today Project Blue Book. It reads: "It is the ATIC opinion that Captain Mantell lost consciousness due to oxygen starvation, the aircraft being trimmed continued to climb until

Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010002-9