Out of this world: Coyne Incident focused UFO attention on north central Ohio in 1973
MIFFLIN — The mention of Unidentified Flying Objects naturally grabs the attention of even the least curious observer. It’s easily among the most interesting topics relating to outer space and aviation.
However, when people think of UFO’s, locations like Area 51, Roswell, New Mexico, and various sites in Nevada and even Wisconsin all jump in front of north central Ohio.
Ah, but we’re not completely out of the loop, so to speak.
GALLERY: Coyne Incident
UFOs over Richland County
Charted encounter
(A Helicopter-UFO Encounter Over Ohio by Jennie Zeidman, 1979)
Scene of the encounter
The witnesses who watched the helicopter/UFO encounter were pulled off the road on Rt. 430 where the road bridges Charles Mill Lake, about 2 miles from the I-71/Rt 30 interchange.
Official documentation
There were four earnest and sober young men in uniform who all signed their names to witness the Oct. 18, 1973 close encounter in the sky over Richland County. (A Helicopter-UFO Encounter Over Ohio by Jennie Zeidman, 1979)
Eyewitness sketch of UFO
Two of the men in the helicopter independently sketched the UFO they saw, and both drawings are remarkably similar. (A Helicopter-UFO Encounter Over Ohio by Jennie Zeidman, 1979)
Published documentation
The Mansfield Encounter, or Coyne Incident, has been referenced in dozens of UFO books during the last four decades, but the first published accounts other than newspaper coverage, came in these two volumes from 1978 and 1979.
Enquirer UFO award
The [helicopter] crew won the National Enquirer Blue Ribbon Scientific Panel’s $5,000 award for “the most scientific and valuable report of 1973.”
And not long afterwards Aviation Week & Space Technology editor Philip Klass (who declares flatly that he never found a UFO case he couldn’t solve) announced that his “rigorous investigation” of the case had determined that the object was merely “a fireball of the Orionid meteor shower.”
Coyne incident
This was a sketch of what Capt. Lawrence J. Coyne and his crew witnessed in the sky over Charles Mill Lake on Oct. 18, 1973.
On Oct. 18, 1973, UFOs became the centerpiece of conversation in this region and beyond. That was the night the Coyne Incident, or the Mansfield Encounter (whichever you prefer), became one of the best documented UFO events in United States history.
The incident began when the four-man crew of a military helicopter led by U.S. Army Capt. Larry Coyne saw something truly unforgettable in the night sky.
The crew, including Coyne, 1st Lt. Arrigo Jezzi, Sgt. John Healey, and Sgt. Robert Yanacsek, was flying back to Cleveland from Columbus and was stopping in Mansfield to refuel. But as they got near Charles Mill Lake, they noticed a red light that seemed out of place off in the distance. In short order, the odd light appeared to be flying on a collision course with the helicopter.
Coyne noticed this, and as he was preparing for evasive maneuvers, the odd light stopped in front of the helicopter in mid-air.
“A cigar-shaped gray metallic object filled the entire front windshield. A red light was at the nose, a white light at the tail, and a distinctive green beam emanated from the lower part of the object,” the crew reported.
The object scanned over the cockpit with a green spotlight. It then flew off over Mansfield.
Several witnesses on the ground also reported seeing an odd red light in the sky. After this event, Coyne submitted a report where he claimed that the object was real and needed to be investigated.
Footage and interviews about the Mansfield Encounter extracted from 1979 documentary UFOs: It Has Begun with Rod Serling.
To this day the Coyne Incident is considered one of the most credible accounts of a UFO encounter, largely because of the impeccable credibility of the crew.
Interestingly, there have been a number of other UFO reports published in north central Ohio media.
One of those events occurred n March of 1948 and was covered by the News-Journal. In this sighting, Mansfield resident Olive Owen reported seeing a strange light in the sky travelling in an irregular pattern near Possum Run Road.
On March 11, 2004, two Ontario residents filed reports with the National UFO Reporting Center describing a similar unidentified aircraft. The object was described as a triangular shape, flying at speeds around 50 mph above Route 309 towards Columbus, and had several yellow lights randomly displayed on the bottom of the object.
More recently, on June 6, 2018, a chevron shape was reported flying over Mansfield. In a report to the National UFO Reporting Center, the object was described as silent, flying between altitudes of 5,000 to 10,000 feet, and disappearing into the sunlight.
These are just a sampling of several interesting UFO incidents in the region over the past 80 years. There were no less than eight stories published by the local media of UFO sightings since 1948.
The stories of varying detail are often captivating and even intriguing — based largely on the subject matter.
For more on these incidents and other reference materials, check out Jayson Schechty’s article Strange Sightings in the Night Sky, gleaned from the Sherman Room documentation compiled at the Mansfield/Richland County Public Library.
Author Taylor Perry is a student at Ohio Northern University.
This article has been archived for your research. The original version from Richland Source can be found here.
