Retired military personnel becoming more vocal about the phenomena
Reports of UFO visits to North Central Ohio have increased in the nearly 50 years since one of the world's most believable encounters was documented above Mansfield by a military helicopter crew.
The phenomenon has spread throughout the Buckeye State as well. Ohio ranks No. 8 among states for UFO sightings with 4,110, based on a recent study by Outforia, a company that calls itself "the world's new favorite place to discover everything you seek — plus much more you never knew about — regarding the beautiful wilderness of Planet Earth."
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The most UFO sightings have been reported in California with 15,072, about twice the number reported in second-place Florida, which has had 7,513. Coming in third was Washington with 6,720.
Other states ahead of Ohio were Texas (5,631), New York (5,403), Arizona (4,604) and Pennsylvania (4,592).
'The object... took off and left him'
Ohio is one of the more active states for UFO activity, according to Tom Wertman, Ohio director for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).
"We always rank in the top 10," he said.
Places such as California and Florida rank higher because of population and climate — there are more people who have more days with weather nice enough to be outside seeing unexplainable phenomena.
Investigators from MUFON have noticed that UFO sightings have increased in recent years, with many credible sources reporting them.
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"There are a number of instances involving the military," Wertman said.
Several former military officials have gone public in the past few years with detailed encounters of unidentified objects they encountered while on duty.
One of the men provided authentic video recorded from an F-18 fighter jet that depicts a UFO performing what engineers consider to be impossible maneuvers.
"The object basically, when he tried to intercept it, took off and left him," Wertman said.
What may be even more interesting is the lack of response or explanation from current military officials.
"The government's not coming out and saying they're (UFO spotters) making this up," Wertman said.
Mansfield encounter still world famous
One of the most famous military encounters with a UFO took place in the skies above Richland and Ashland counties the night of Oct. 18, 1973.
For investigators of the unexplained, Wertman said the incident remains "in the top 10 cases of all times."
The event took place about 11 that night when helicopter pilot Maj. Lawrence Coyne was flying his Army Reserve crew of three others home from Columbus to Cleveland.
"I lived in Ashland at the time," Wertman said. "When I went to work the next day, guys at work were talking about it."
Several eyewitnesses reported the same thing as the four military personnel — when the helicopter got to about Charles Mill Lake, an object with a solid red light started approaching the helicopter in the sky.
"It appeared to be pacing the helicopter," Wertman said.
The men were concerned it might be a jet stationed at Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport, since the 179th had not yet transitioned from a tactical fighter group to an airlift wing.
"Mansfield Lahm at that time was operating F-100 fighters," Wertman said.
The crew decided the craft was on an intersecting path with their helicopter, so they monitored its progress as Coyne sent radio messages to the air base. Those messages went unanswered.
Army Reserve Capt. Lawrence Coyne speaks with
crew member Arrigo Jezzi, who was flying Coyne’s helicopter when the
crew reportedly encountered a UFO in October
Coyne dove the helicopter to try to avoid colliding with the cigar-shaped craft, but it followed his lead and eventually hovered directly in front of them, shining a blinding green light into their cockpit.
"Roughly about one minute was all it lasted," Wertman said.
When the UFO finally turned off its light and flew away, the crew realized their helicopter had been pulled about 2,000 feet above where they had been when the craft had intercepted them.
The crew barely made it home to Cleveland as their fuel supply was mysteriously gone.
"Coyne said the next day he checked with Mansfield and they said they had no records of his communications whatsoever," Wertman said.
Marion UFO sighting debunked
Not every reported UFO sighting in North Central Ohio proves to be mysterious.
Just this winter, MUFON received a tip that a Marion resident had recoded a video of two sets of four lights flying together on Jan. 16, 2022.
"The video was getting attention out there," Wertman said.
The organization's investigators decided the report was credible enough to research.
"We eventually found out the individual was in a smaller town about 30 to 40 miles north of Marion," Wertman said.
He used the new location to search a database of all flight records throughout the state.
"I found right around that time frame a C-130 had left Lahm doing a training exercise that night," Wertman said. "He was going directory through that area at 3,000 feet at night."
The flight was a tandem, meaning two cargo planes were flying next to one another through the night sky.
"It looked very unusual from the ground," Wertman said. "The time frames, everything, matched up 100%."
'Left with the truly unknown'
Proving the incident was not a UFO is not considered a bad thing by MUFON investigators. Their goal is to eventually discover the truth behind every report.
"I think it's great to look into cases like this," Wertman said.
It's also good training, and the investigators have received plenty of training opportunities as of late.
"Last year we got roughly 200 cases in Ohio that we had to investigate," Wertman said. "Of those, you're looking at about 20% that aren't explained."
Sometimes, the reports cannot be explained because there just aren't enough resources for researchers to analyze. The phenomena could be airplanes, satellites, or even drones.
"We do the best job we can investigating and researching these cases," Wertman said.
Once all of their efforts are exhausted, the investigators start to get excited because they then know they're not dealing with an airplane or other common aircraft mistaken for a UFO.
"Now you're left with the truly unknown that you were going after to begin with," Wertman said.
It might be aliens, but maybe not
In general, nothing about the phrase "UFO" is supposed to imply that an alien creature has built or is piloting the craft.
Many who are interested in solving the mysteries of UFOs have stepped away from the phrase to avoid association with a stigma that has been created by decades of pop culture and science fiction.
A new term gaining popularity is "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena," or "UAP" for short.
"That implies it may be a man-made system we're seeing of some sort," Wertman said "We just don't know who is operating it."
Getting to the bottom of what's happening is not only intriguing for the curious, but important for national defense.
"If you've got something off the coast going through our air space, we have to figure it out," Wertman said. "Does somebody have the technology that they've developed that we're just not aware of?"
He said the entire discussion is being embraced by the military, rather than being avoided.
"They're also wanting personnel to come forward and talk about experiences like this," Wertman said. "What they're saying is they're not going to hold it against them."
It could even be a mixture of aliens and humans — companies or governments on Earth could be experimenting with otherworldly ideas discovered from mysterious wrecks around the globe.
"You don’t know what may have been obtained over the years," Wertman said. "We may just now be able reverse engineer some of those items."
Zach Tuggle
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