Coyne Helicopter UFO Incident
Date: October 18, 1973
Location: Mansfield, Ohio, USA
On October 18, 1973, at approximately 10:30 PM a UH-1H helicopter of the
United States Army Reserve left Port Columbus, Ohio, for its home base of
Cleveland Hopkins airport, ninety-six nautical miles to the north-northeast. In
command, in the right-front seat, was Captain Lawrence J. Coyne, thirty-six,
with nineteen years of flying experience. At the controls, in the left-front
seat, sat First Lieutenant Arrigo Jezzi, twenty-six, a chemical engineer.
Behind Jezzi sat Sergeant John Healey, thirty-five, a Cleveland policeman who
was the flight medic, and Coyne was the Crew Chief, Sergeant Robert Yanacsek,
twenty-three, a computer technician. The helicopter was cruising at 2,500 feet
above sea level at an indicated airspeed of ninety knots, above mixed hills, woods,
and rolling farmland, averaging 1,200 elevation. The night was totally clear,
calm, and starry. The last quarter moon was just rising.
About ten miles south of Mansfield, Healey noticed a single red light off to the west, flying south. It seemed brighter than a standard aircraft port-wing light, but it was not considered relevant traffic, and he does not recall mentioning it. An estimated two minutes later, at approximately 11:02 PM, Yanacsek noted a single red light on the south-east horizon. He assumed it was either a radio-tower beacon or an aircraft port-wing light - most likely an aircraft, since it was not flashing - and he watched it "for a long time, a minute to ninety seconds" before calling it to Coyne's attention. Coyne, smoking, relaxing, glanced over, noted the light, assumed it was distant traffic, and told told Yanacsek casually to "keep an eye on it."
After an estimated additional thirty seconds, Yanacsek announced that the light had turned toward the helicopter and appeared to be on a converging flight path. Coyne verified Yanacsek's assessment, grabbed the controls from Jezzi, and put the UH-1H into a powered descent of approximately 500 feet per minute. Almost simultaneously, Coyne established radio contact with Mansfield control tower, ten miles to the northwest. Coyne thought the flight was an Air National Guard F-100 from Mansfield. After an initial acknowledgment ("This is Mansfield Tower, go ahead Army 1-5-triple-4"), radio contact failed. Jezzi then attempted transmission on both UHF and VHF frequencies without success. Although the channel and keying tones were both heard, there was no response from Mansfield; and a subsequent check by Coyne revealed that Mansfield had no tape of even the initial transmission, the the last F-100 had landed at 10:47 P.M.
The red light continued its radial bearing and increased greatly in
intensity. Coyne increased his rate of descent to 2,000 feet per minute and his
airspeed to 100 knots. The last altitude he noted was 1,700 feet. Just as a
collision appeared imminent, the unknown light halted in its westward course
and assumed a hovering relationship above and in front of the helicopter.
"It wasn't cruising, it was stopped. For maybe ten to twelve seconds -
just stopped," Yanacsek reported. Coyne, Healey, and Yanacsek agree that a
cigar-shaped, slightly domed object substended an angle of nearly the width of
the front windshield.
A featureless, gray, metallic-looking structure was
precisely delineated against the background stars. Yanacsek reported "a
suggestion of windows" along the top dome section. The red light emanated
from the bow, a white light became visible at a slightly indented stern, and
then, from aft/below, a green 'pyramid shaped" beam equated to a
directional spotlight became visible. The green beam passed upward over the
helicopter nose, swung up through the windshield, continued upward and entered
the tinted upper window panels.
At that point (and not before), the cockpit was
enveloped in green light. Jezzi reported only a bright white light, comparable
to the leading light of a small aircraft, visible through the top
"greenhouse' panels of the windshield. After the estimated ten seconds of
"hovering," the object began to accelerate off to the west, now with only
the white "tail" light visible. The white light maintained its
intensity even as its distance appeared to increase, and finally (according to
Coyne and Healey), it appeared to execute a decisive 45 degree turn to the
right, head out toward Lake Erie, and then "snap out" over the
horizon. Healey reported that he watched the object moving westward "for a
couple of minutes."
Jezzi said it moved faster than the 250-knot limit for
aircraft below 10,000 feet, but not as fast as the 600-knot approach speed reported
by the others. There was no noise from the object or turbulence during the
encounter, except for one "bump" as the object moved away to the
west. After the object had broken off its hovering relationship, Jezzi and
Coyne noted that the magnetic compass disk was rotating approximately four
times per minute and that the altimeter read approximately 3,500 feet; a 1,000
foot-per-minute climb was in progress.
Coyne insists that the collective was
still bottomed from his evasive descent. Since the collective could not be lowered
further, he had no alternative but to lift it, whatever the results, and after
a few seconds of gingerly maneuvering controls (during which the helicopter
reached nearly 3,800 feet), positive control was achieved. By that time the
white light had already moved into the Mansfield area. Coyne had been
subliminally aware of the climb; the others not at all, yet they had all been
acutely aware of the g-forces of the dive. The helicopter was brought back to
the flight plan altitude of 2,500 feet, radio contact was achieved with
Canton/Akron, the night proceeded uneventfully to Cleveland.
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