Posted On: June 8, 2022

The year was 1948. The place was between Marietta, Georgia and Standiord Field, Kentucky. Four National Guard P-51 Mustang aircraft had an incident with a high flying UFO. The incident led to the death of Captain Thomas Mantell.

Sorry about the robot voice. For now we are going to do a combination of some human narrator videos and some robot voiced ones. Our long term goal is to have 100% of our videos, human narrator. We are looking for volunteers. Send us an email if you are interested.

On January 7th, 1948, at about 15:30 hours, a flight of four National Guard P-51 Mustang aircraft, led by Captain Thomas Mantell, flying from Marietta, Georgia, to Standiord Field, Kentucky, was requested by the control tower at Godman AFB, Kentucky, to investigate an unidentified flying object in the vicinity of Godman. The official summary describes the incident as follows:

"Three of the ships started to climb toward the object. Pilot Hendricks in NG336 continued on and landed at 15:01 hours at Standiford Field. Pilots Hammond, NG737 and Clements NG800, climbed to 22000 feet with Mantell in NG3869 then continued on to their original destination because of lack of oxygen arriving there at 15:40 hours. Mantell continued climbing toward object. Standiford operations advised Wright Field Service Center at 17:50 hours [Eastern Time] that NG3869 pilot Mantell crashed 2 miles southwest of Franklin, Kentucky at approximately 16:45 hours. Accident fatal to pilot, major damage to aircraft."

While the official explanation was that Mantell had simply been chasing Venus, (later changed to a balloon), and had lost consciousness as a result of oxygen starvation, a 19:48 hours, top secret joint Air Force and Naval Intelligence analysis of UFO incidents, (declassified in 1985), states:

“While it is presumed that this pilot suffered anoxia, resulting in his crash, his last message to the tower was, 'It appears to be metallic object, tremendous in size, directly ahead and slightly above, I am trying to close for a better look.'"

Request For Interceptor Aircraft

In February 1948, Brigadier General Cabell, Chief of the Air Intelligence Requirements Division (AIRD), sent a secret memo to the Director of Plans and Operations stating that the Commanding General of AMC felt that the responsibility assigned to him for collecting and developing information and intelligence on the "flying disks" should be complemented by a requirement that all Air Force installations in the United States and Alaska, "provide a minimum of one each fighter or interceptor type aircraft, with necessary crews, on a continuous alert basis. These aircraft should be equipped with gun camera, and such armament as deemed advisable, in order to secure photographs necessary to the obtainment of all possible data on any reported and sighted unusual phenomena, of the ‘flying disk’ type, in the atmosphere".

In his reply to the proposal, the Director of Plans and Operations said that stationing fighter planes at all bases on a continuous alert status was not considered feasible on the grounds that the outlay of aircraft and personnel would be too great, "proper interception is not possible, except by accident, without complete radar coverage which the Air Force is not capable of providing. It is doubtful if fighter aircraft would be able to follow up reports emanating, for the most part, from civilian sources."

Resources: Above Top Secret, Timothy Good, 1988

My Take: I wonder if the pilot just flew too high and blacked out or if the UFO actually did something to his air craft. We will probably never know for sure. The balloon explanation would be laughable if it didn’t end in a tragic death.

Posted On: June 8, 2022

The year was 1948. The place was between Marietta, Georgia and Standiord Field, Kentucky. Four National Guard P-51 Mustang aircraft had an incident with a high flying UFO. The incident led to the death of Captain Thomas Mantell.

Sorry about the robot voice. For now we are going to do a combination of some human narrator videos and some robot voiced ones. Our long term goal is to have 100% of our videos, human narrator. We are looking for volunteers. Send us an email if you are interested.

On January 7th, 1948, at about 15:30 hours, a flight of four National Guard P-51 Mustang aircraft, led by Captain Thomas Mantell, flying from Marietta, Georgia, to Standiord Field, Kentucky, was requested by the control tower at Godman AFB, Kentucky, to investigate an unidentified flying object in the vicinity of Godman. The official summary describes the incident as follows:

"Three of the ships started to climb toward the object. Pilot Hendricks in NG336 continued on and landed at 15:01 hours at Standiford Field. Pilots Hammond, NG737 and Clements NG800, climbed to 22000 feet with Mantell in NG3869 then continued on to their original destination because of lack of oxygen arriving there at 15:40 hours. Mantell continued climbing toward object. Standiford operations advised Wright Field Service Center at 17:50 hours [Eastern Time] that NG3869 pilot Mantell crashed 2 miles southwest of Franklin, Kentucky at approximately 16:45 hours. Accident fatal to pilot, major damage to aircraft."

While the official explanation was that Mantell had simply been chasing Venus, (later changed to a balloon), and had lost consciousness as a result of oxygen starvation, a 19:48 hours, top secret joint Air Force and Naval Intelligence analysis of UFO incidents, (declassified in 1985), states:

“While it is presumed that this pilot suffered anoxia, resulting in his crash, his last message to the tower was, 'It appears to be metallic object, tremendous in size, directly ahead and slightly above, I am trying to close for a better look.'"

Request For Interceptor Aircraft

In February 1948, Brigadier General Cabell, Chief of the Air Intelligence Requirements Division (AIRD), sent a secret memo to the Director of Plans and Operations stating that the Commanding General of AMC felt that the responsibility assigned to him for collecting and developing information and intelligence on the "flying disks" should be complemented by a requirement that all Air Force installations in the United States and Alaska, "provide a minimum of one each fighter or interceptor type aircraft, with necessary crews, on a continuous alert basis. These aircraft should be equipped with gun camera, and such armament as deemed advisable, in order to secure photographs necessary to the obtainment of all possible data on any reported and sighted unusual phenomena, of the ‘flying disk’ type, in the atmosphere".

In his reply to the proposal, the Director of Plans and Operations said that stationing fighter planes at all bases on a continuous alert status was not considered feasible on the grounds that the outlay of aircraft and personnel would be too great, "proper interception is not possible, except by accident, without complete radar coverage which the Air Force is not capable of providing. It is doubtful if fighter aircraft would be able to follow up reports emanating, for the most part, from civilian sources."

Resources: Above Top Secret, Timothy Good, 1988

My Take: I wonder if the pilot just flew too high and blacked out or if the UFO actually did something to his air craft. We will probably never know for sure. The balloon explanation would be laughable if it didn’t end in a tragic death.