On Tuesday, October 15, 1996, just past 11 p.m., a man driving between Kenton and Bellefontaine on Ohio Highway 68 spied a triangular UFO in the sky. The UFO was three miles (5 kilometers) north of Bellefontaine and described as "a bright red light centered between two white lights...an additional white light was close by, which made a triangle shape...The red light was centered in the triangular pattern and detached from the main object." The witness had it in view for five minutes before the light "extinguished." At 11:30 p.m., he phoned the group Tri-States Advocates for Scientific Knowledge. Both T.A.S.K. and the Hardin County Sheriff's Department investigated the incident.
Four separate UFO incidents took place the following night, October 16. At 8:30 p.m., a couple on Flaugher Hill Road in Aberdeen, Ohio, a town on the Ohio River 48 miles (77 kilometers) southeast of Cincinnati, saw "an orange light" to their immediate north. The UFO "appeared, then disappeared, then reappeared in a different part of the sky. I'd never seen anything like it in my life," the man said, adding that his wife was "near hysteria." He phoned both the Brown County Sheriff's Department and the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Police dispatchers, however, deny that any UFO calls were received that night.
At 8:37 p.m., another couple saw "a bright orangish red" UFO "appear and disappear...in the direction of Manchester" (population 2,400), another Ohio River town 12 miles east of Aberdeen. The husband phoned a friend in Bethel (population 2,231), forty miles (64 kilometers) to the northwest, who looked outdoors and saw "three or four lights moving in a straight line, and two or three lights in a diagonal line, forming a T shape."
At 8:45 p.m., in rural Ross County outside of Chillicothe (population 23,240), a city 64 miles (102 kilometers) northeast of Manchester, residents spotted "appearing and disappearing lights." One man videotaped "an object with lights rotating around it in a circle." Radio station WKKJ 93.3 FM in Chillicothe drew several calls from listeners describing the UFOs. The UFO tape was broadcast on TV Channel 10 in Columbus, Ohio the next day, October 17.
In Jackson, Ohio (population 6,675), located 31 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of Chillicothe, a resident reported seeing "a bright red fireball traversing the sky just after dark (6 p.m.) heading west."
On Thursday, October 17, at 11 p.m., Melissa M., 22, of Lima, Ohio was outdoors walking her dog. The canine needed to answer a call of nature. All at once, she saw "a bright light moving from the south." At first glance, Melissa thought it was a medical emergency helicopter but changed her mind when "the light went over me at high speed without making any noise." Minutes later, three military jets roared over her head. "They were so low I could see the red of their afterburners." (Email Interview)
Melissa's hometown of Lima (population 43,400) is 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and 37 miles (59 kilometers) northwest of Bellefontaine. (Many thanks to Kenneth Young of T.A.S.K. for the Ohio River UFO reports.)
Original file name: .CNI - OHIO UFO FLAP
This file was converted with TextToHTML - (c) Logic n.v.