Expert studies deaths linked to unidentified flying objects
Many reports of premature deaths in the US have been linked to aliens, sparking theories that the people may have been killed by a third species. They include a US Air Force pilot who died shortly after claiming to have witnessed a flying object, and a Brazilian man who was «hit in the head by an alien.» Alien expert Nigel Watson has written about the cases in a new book, The UFO Files, which includes a chapter, «Death by UFO,» dedicated to the mysterious deaths. Watson has spent years studying UFO reports around the world and has published several books and reports on his findings.
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One of the cases covered in the book is the death of US Air Force Captain Thomas Mantell, who was asked to investigate a silvery, conical flying object in 1948, the Daily Mail reported.
Reports claimed that Mantell, who was a 25-year-old World War II hero, and three other pilots were conducting a training exercise when they were ordered to investigate a high-flying silvery object with a red tip.
«It looks like a metal object, or perhaps the sun reflecting off a metal object, and it's huge,» Mantell reported as he flew over Fort Knox, Kentucky.
Three aircraft scrambled to 22,000 feet to intercept the object.
At 2:45 p.m., Mantell radioed the tower that he had spotted the object.
" The object is now directly in front of me and above me, moving at about half my speed,” he said.
30 minutes later he provided another update: “It appears to be a metal object, or perhaps the reflection of the sun off a metal object, and it is huge in size. I keep rising. The object is above me and in front of me, moving at my speed or even faster. I'm trying to get closer to get a better look.»
Shortly after this, two other planes had to abort their flight due to lack of oxygen.
Mantell, however, continued to rise higher and higher, reaching altitude of about 25,000 feet.
But at 5 p.m., the wreckage of his plane was discovered in Shelby County, southeast of Louisville.
The U.S. Air Force then said the object was a secret Skyhook balloon launched into southern Ohio with CIA support.
According to Watson, UFO theorists still claim that Mantell died at the hands of a deadly UFO , and the explanation about «Skyhook» was only revealed in the late 1960s.
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Brazilian Inacio de Souza and his wife were returning home in August 1967 when they saw what looked like an overturned washbasin and three men in tight clothing.
Souza reflexively fired his rifle at one of the men, which seemed to have no effect, but a green beam of light struck Souza's head from the UFO.
De Souza lost consciousness and experienced numbness and trembling in his head and arms.
A doctor assumed Souza was simply hallucinating, and a few days later he was diagnosed with leukemia. The disease progressed rapidly, and he died on October 11, 1967.
Watson wrote: «While some ufologists believe that this meeting and de Souza's illness were simply a tragic coincidence, others prefer to believe that the green light from the UFO was an intense beam of deadly radiation.»
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In 1947, American Harold Dahl, along with his son Charles and two crew members, was in tow off Maury Island in Puget Sound, between Seattle and Tacoma.< /p>
According to the men, they saw six gold and silver donut-shaped objects above them, one of which “swayed” and then released a rain of thin metal strips and black lumps. One of them hit the boy in the hand, burned it, and their dog died.
Dahl's boss, Fred Lee Chrisman, visited the site and removed some of the debris.
Dahl then encountered a man in dark suit driving a black sedan, who drove him to a Tacoma diner and warned him to keep quiet.
Kenneth Arnold, who had spotted «flying saucers» just a few days earlier, turned to Air Force intelligence for help.
On July 31, 1947, Captain William Davidson and Lieutenant Frank M. Brown were sent to Tacoma, but found no sign of molten lead rain and decided that the sample fragments were slag from the smelter.
Davidson and Brown were killed when their B-25 crashed on the way back to base, and many samples and photographs, associated with this case have disappeared.
Watson writes: “To many, this all looked like a cover-up on the part of military intelligence. When District Attorney Jim Garrison put Clay Shaw on trial for his alleged involvement in the JFK assassination in October 1968, Fred Lee Chrisman was summoned to appear in court. Garrison believed that Shaw and Chrisman were longtime CIA employees involved in a range of questionable activities, including the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
As they were returning to their base at Hamilton Field, California, the left engine of their B-25 aircraft caught fire and they were killed when it crashed near Kelso, Washington. An anonymous caller to a local newspaper named the victims before the crash was known and said the plane was shot down by a 20mm cannon because there were fragments of a flying saucer on board.
When Kenneth Arnold took off from Tacoma, his engine failed and he had to make an emergency landing. While checking his plane, he discovered that the fuel valve was turned off. Paul Lance, the Tacoma Times reporter who covered the story, died suddenly two weeks later of meningitis.
Many of these stories sound outlandish, and many of these deaths have plausible explanations. Thus, they do not go far beyond the ufological community. Government agencies or the infamous Men in Black could work, but killing people seems too extreme, especially over the decades when there are easier ways to discredit UFO researchers.
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In February 1968, New York UFO researcher Jennifer Stevens was approached by two boys who claimed to have seen a "glowing fireball" over the Mohawk River.
The boy's friend thought he saw a humanoid in a white robe in the bushes.
The body of another 16-year-old boy was found nearby, who left a note for his grandparents, saying to whom he reported that he was going for a walk.
Watson writes: “The coroner's verdict was death from hypothermia, but Stevens was convinced that his death was related to UFO activity in the area. She noticed that the boy’s footprints in the snow indicated that at first he was running, and then it seemed to him that something was dragging him from above.
After this, a man turned to Stevens’ husband and said: “ ;People who search for UFOs should be very careful.»
When her husband died suddenly, Stevens stopped her UFO research.