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The final flight of Captain Thomas F. Mantell Jr. is considered by some researchers as the first human death attributed to a UFO. On January 7, 1948, Kentucky Air National Guard Captain Mantell was piloting an F-51 (like the one pictured above, a postwar version of the famed P-51D Mustang) to Standiford Air Force Base, Kentucky, along with three other National Guard planes. Around 1:30 P.M. Kentucky State Police were flooded with reports from citizens of a large, circular object flying erratically over Mansville, Kentucky. Soon after similar reports came from Irvington and Owensboro. It was then reported visually from the control tower of Godman Air Force Base. The object was described as a huge, metallic sphere, with a red and white light on the bottom, and moving in a generally southward direction. Around 2:40 P.M. Captain Mantells flight was asked to investigate. One pilot was low on fuel and asked to continue his flight to the base, and was granted permission. Meanwhile Captain Mantell and the other two planes began climbing in the direction of the UFO in an attempt to intercept it.
With Mantell in the lead, the three F-51s soon reached 15,000 feet at which point Mantell radioed in, " The object is directly ahead and above me now, moving at about half of my speed.........It appears to be a metallic object......sun reflecting off of it, and it is of tremendous size.......I'm still climbing.......I'm trying to close in for a better look." Reaching 22 thousand feet, Mantells two escorts turned back, as the post war fighter planes had not been equiped with oxygen. Captain Mantell continued onward, leveled off at 30,000 feet and plunged into a spiral dive where it crashed on the farm of William J. Phillips, near Franklin, Kentucky, apparently because Captain Mantell had passed out from a lack of oxygen. According to the official accident report, Captain Mantells body was still strapped in the wreckage, and his watch had stopped at 3:18 P.M.
By 3:50 P.M. the UFO was no longer visible from Godman, although reports of it continued to come in from areas further south all the way into Tennessee. The cause of Captain Mantells death induced immediate controversy. The New York Times carried the headlines " Flier Dies Chasing a 'Flying Saucer' " and " Plane Explodes over Kentucky as That and Near States Report Strange Object". Speculation ended with the Air Force's announcement that the fighters were simply chasing Venus and that Captain Mantell crashed due to anoxia (oxygen deprivation). However a witness sited by the newspaper stated that he saw the plane explode. Glen Mays, who lived near Franklin said " The plane circled three times like the pilot didnt know where he was going, and then started into a dive from about 20,000 feet. About halfway down there was a terrific explosion". To add doubt to the Air Forces almost laughable explanation of the planes chasing Venus, were comments made by Godman base commander Guy F. Hix, who told reporters he observed the "flying saucer" for almost an hour.
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