Such a mysterious explosion was heard in the early morning hours of May 9 in southwest Ohio. This report was filed by Kenny Young, investigator for T.A.S.K., the Tri-State Advocates for Scientific Knowledge. Young can be reached by email at task@fuse.net]
by Kenny Young
At 12:08 a.m., Friday morning May 9, 1997, a mysterious "BOOM" shook a large area in the vicinities of Debolt and Main Street (S.R. 32) in the community of Newtown, Ohio, which is in the eastern section of Hamilton County [just east of Cincinnati].
T.A.S.K. investigator Charles Stuart acquired news of the event following the 2:00 a.m. newscast on radio station WLW, when the event was the top news story.
A phone call placed at 2:08 a.m. to the Hamilton County Police & Fire Dispatch Center (513-825-2260) confirmed that "many" calls had been received regarding a "deep blast" that was heard at 12:08 a.m.
The dispatcher conveyed how their initial suspicion held that a transformer had exploded, but then added that "our investigations discounted that possibility."
During a second interview at 2:20 a.m. with Sergeant Foster, the officer stated that he had heard the [explosion].
"This was no boom, it was something big. It was not random fireworks, it sounded like a propane bomb," declared Sgt. Foster. The Sergeant described the commotion as a "deep explosion" which lasted 4 or 5 seconds.
The police sergeant also said that Fire Chief Dale Henderson suspected the mystery sound was affiliated with jet aircraft traffic flying overhead.
"They changed their flight corridor to the Greater Cincinnati Airport," Sgt. Foster said, "and the fire chief is looking into the possibilities that something unusual happened with one of these planes."
The Cincinnati Gas & Electric Emergency Reporting Center, advised of the matter by the Anderson Township Police Department, instructed the Electrical Trouble Department to proceed into the region. The repair crews scoured the area and reported no system problems [nor] customer complaints regarding service disruption.
A clerk at a United Dairy Farmer convenience mart located at the intersection of Route 32 and Church Road in Newtown was contacted at 3:45 a.m. The night clerk, when asked about the boom, said, "I heard it. I thought a truck had hit the back of the store."
"The first thing I did was look outside, and there was a patrol cruiser that just happened to be stopped at the traffic light out front," [said] the night clerk. "It looked like the officer was hunkered down in his seat, crouched under the steering wheel. He sat there a few minutes, and then after awhile, his siren started flashing, and within three minutes, there were cops everywhere, and the sirens on top of the volunteer fire department started going off.'
The Cincinnati FAA tower was contacted at 8:20 a.m., where Mr. Dennis Klepper, the Quality Assurance Officer, was aware of the event but denied knowledge of any unusual aircraft malfunctions or other abnormalities which would have produced the thunderous boom.
"I heard the news reports on the radio this morning," Mr. Klepper said, "and I can't put my finger on any airplane coming out of this airport which would cause such a racket. A sonic boom would have to be a military aircraft, but if it was a sonic boom, it would have been heard beyond Newtown. If a plane blew up, we would know about it, and there would be fires or something. As far as a mechanical malfunction, I checked the operations log for the night and nothing was reported."
T.A.S.K. has also investigated the details of a similar and equally mysterious event [that happened] 6.75 miles north of Newtown on April 17. The disturbance was reported to the Clermont County and Miami Township police and fire services by residents of Thielmans Mobile Home Park on State Route 28 near Interstate 275. Attempts to explain the April 17th incident by various theories such as corona discharge and ball lightning have been explored.
Unlike the incident two weeks earlier, however, the May 9 disruption was not accompanied by a visible flash of light.
The weather conditions were as follows: Temperature: 61 degrees, clear skies, high haze. Variable cloudiness toward daybreak, no moon visible.
Original file name: CNI - PHANTOM BLAST.Ohio
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