[meteorite-list] UFO Encounter Still Puzzles 30 Years Later

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:34 2004
Message-ID: <200310231730.KAA07647_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/news/stories/20031018/localnews/476885.html

UFO still puzzles 30 years later
Soldiers encountered something strange in 'Coyne Incident'

By Russ Kent
News Journal
October 18, 2003

MANSFIELD -- Thirty years ago tonight, strange
things were happening in the skies over north central
Ohio.

A close encounter in Mansfield, that has since become
known as "The Coyne Incident," is still raising eyebrows
among believers and UFO investigators.

That evening, in a soybean field on the west side of
Galion, Rene Boucher and her brother Brad encountered
a bright light in the sky that has lured her from Florida
for another sojourn into that field.

It was about 11 p.m. on Oct. 18, 1973, when an Army
Reserve helicopter came perilously close to colliding
with an unidentified flying object.

Arrigo "Rick" Jezzi, 56, who now lives in Cincinnati, was
flying the Huey helicopter that night. Three decades
later, he is still not sure what happened.

Jezzi was one of four members of an Army Reserve unit
based at Hopkins Airport in Cleveland on board. The
crew was en route to Cleveland from Columbus.

"Capt. Larry Coyne was the pilot," Jezzi said. "I was in
the left seat, actually flying the Huey at the time. We
were near Mansfield flying at 2,500 to 3,000 feet."

John Healey and Robert Yanacsek were in the back of
the Huey, near a cargo door with a Plexiglas window.

"One of the guys in the back reported a red light. He said
it looked like an aircraft light on the right horizon," Jezzi
said. "I couldn't see it."

Jezzi was flying from the left seat. On the other side of
the Huey there was a 12-foot section of fuselage
between the side window and the cargo doors. He
figures the red light was in his blind spot.

"Then I heard 'I think its coming toward us'," Jezzi said.
"The next thing I knew Larry took control of the throttle.
We went into a maneuver, a controlled free fall. We
dropped about 2,000 feet."

Jezzi said if Coyne had not made the drastic maneuver
there would have been a collision.

"It took just a couple of seconds," Jezzi said. "I
remember looking up through the ceiling and I saw a
white light moving over top of us. I followed it to the left
horizon where it disappeared."

Jezzi isn't sure what he saw. It was like no aircraft he'd
ever seen. He guessed it was traveling at least 500
knots, twice the speed of his Huey.

"Red navigational lights aren't located in the front of an
aircraft," he said. "That's what was moving toward us. I
don't know what it was."

The incident was documented by witnesses on the
ground. In UFO lore the "Coyne Incident" is regarded as
one of the most reliable UFO sightings of all time.

"It caused a lot of hullabaloo," Jezzi said. "The first thing
I thought was those Commie bastards. What are they up
to."

The next morning two of the other crew members, while
being questioned about the incident, sketched drawings
of the cigar-shaped craft they observed.

"They both came up with similar drawings," Jezzi said.

The magnetic compass in the Huey never worked right
after the incident and had to be replaced.

Rene Bouchard doesn't know what she saw in Galion
about 60 minutes earlier that same evening.

"I was in high school. My brother was in junior high," she
said. "There had been a lot of sightings in the days and
weeks before that. Even the governor reported seeing something.
We thought we'd give it a try."

She and her brother walked out in the field behind their home
and started watching the sky.

"We saw a bunch of stuff that looked like it was maybe 30,000
feet in the air," she said. "But it wasn't anything spectacular.
Then I think we both put our heads down for some reason. That's
when we saw this brilliant white light. It was as bright as the
sun. I don't know what it was but it scared us. We ran for two
blocks until we got home."

Rene has since moved to Florida. Her brother is in California.
She's back in Galion today and plans to go out in that same bean
field to spend part of her evening.

"We really saw something that night," she said. "I don't know
what it was. But I'll be back there (tonight). I called my brother
and asked him to fly here so he could go with me. He said no. I'm
not expecting to see anything. But I'm going to be there."

rkent_at_nncogannett.com

(419) 521-7274
Received on Thu 23 Oct 2003 01:30:35 PM PDT