The UFO Phenomenon

The tragic Mantell UFO incident still intrigues 75 years on

By T.K. Randall
January 10, 2023 ·  29 comments

What was the object that Mantell pursued that day ? Image Credit: CC BY 2.0 Paul Hudson Mantell, who saw action during Word War II as a member of the 101st Airborne Division, later served as a fighter pilot with the Kentucky National Guard during which he had an unexplained encounter that cost him his life.

The incident began on January 7th, 1948 when Kentucky State Police Highway Patrol started to receive calls at around 1:20pm in the afternoon about a strange object in the sky over Maysville.

Mantell was part of a group that had been tasked with venturing out to investigate the phenomenon.

When he, alongside his two wingmen, reached 15,000ft, they encountered an object described as "metallic" and "tremendous in size" that was moving at around half the speed of the planes.

"I felt a little shaky at 15,000ft because I realized we were supposed to take oxygen at 12,000," said Lt. B. A. Hammond who was one of the two wingmen accompanying Mantell that day.

"By the time I hit 22,000, I was seeing double. I pulled alongside Clements and indicated with gestures that I didn't have an oxygen mask. He understood the situation, and we turned back."Mantell, however, decided to stay the course, despite the oxygen situation.

At around 3:50pm, the object had disappeared and Mantell, who was thought to have blacked out due to lack of oxygen, plummeted from the sky and died a few minutes later.

In the months that followed, serious questions were asked about how this could have happened. The US Air Force, however, dismissed the UFO as little more than a weather balloon.

For many, including Mantell's grandson, this response was simply not good enough.

"For him to come back home from World War II and die the way he did was very painful, and the government has not done Thomas justice," he said.

"He wasn't some crop-duster joyriding who saw a UFO, he was instructed by Fort Knox to chase this thing and check it out."

Source: Fox 56 | Comments (29)

Tags: UFO