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Portage County, Ohio UFO Chase (April 1966)

Gotta tell ya, I get serious PTSD just listening to Dale.. That interview at the top is intense. Again showing up on a freeway or road (reminds me of grimoires that recommend summoning things at crossroads) -they like doing that, and the articles are full of similar instances --just like mine.
Here is the photo of the object that was taken (amazing), notice the classic canted position, and the angles on the device, beam, etc.

https://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/strangers-in-the-night/Content?oid=1485939

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The drawing:

portage.jpg
 
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Here is the photo with a few simple filters applied:

filters.jpeg
 
Here's Robert Sheaffer's explanation of the sighting.
https://www.fichier-pdf.fr/2012/10/19/floyd/floyd.pdf
Not completely convincing, but some interesting aspects to the case can be noted.

The photo by police chief Buchert does not seem to be consistent with the description of the object, (which is described as self-luminous), and when analysed in detail by the UFO proponent William Weitzel, it was found to be a photographic defect. So I think we can shelve that piece of evidence under 'doubtful'.

The object that the policemen were chasing seems to have spent its time moving at police car speeds across the Ohio landscape (whenever they were in a car) but most of the time it was stationary (when observed by witnesses outside the car). Sometimes it was stationary for tens of minutes at a time. This is consistent with Venus, which was especially bright at the time. I am in agreement with Sheaffer- most of the time this even consisted of policemen chasing Venus. All sightings from inside cars or other vehicles (such as airplanes) are problematic, because of the shifting parallax effects involved.

But quite a few of the witnesses also describe it as moving across the sky - so maybe there was something else going on. An unconnected report on the same day at about the same time was explained by a meteor, so maybe some of the policemen saw that meteor. And some of it is probably misremembered.

As fars as seeing Venus as an Ice-cream cone is concerned: I've tried on many occasions to observe the crescent shape of Venus - apparently some people can see it, but the closest I've ever got to seeing the crescent is seeing it as a kind of twisted caustic pattern in the sky, taller than it is wide. Could someone mistake that for an ice-cream cone? Maybe.
 
Another, similar cross-country chase occurred in the same time period (1967), this time in Devon
http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/flyingcross.htm
In this case it wasn’t difficult for him (and others, including the science correspondent of the Daily Mirror, Arthur Smith –...) to recognize that the ‘flying cross’ was a classic sighting of Venus, which was particularly bright in the dawn sky at the time.
The policemen observed Venus as a cross, rather than a star-like point- an observation that is consistent with my own attempts to see the crescent, and with the Portage 'ice cream cone'.
 
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I had some questions about that photo too --but after listening to Dale talk about it near the end of the interview, it does match up with what he was seeing. The drawing is very interesting --still not sure how it fits in, with rest of sighting. I do remember you suggesting Venus before, and I'll admit it looks a LOT like a UFO sometimes indeed! But you know I don't think that's what it was --folks should listen to interview, read accounts etc., And make up their own minds on the encounter. Remember it illuminated the ground and also the photo was taken from a different position from the officers --perhaps on the opposite side of the object. Venus mistaken for UFOs is nothing new, but I don't think the details here fit that explanation. Apparently Wright -Patterson UFO personnel became involved too.
 
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I grew up in NE Ohio and actually remember, as a kid, this story hitting all the local newspapers. The thing I do not remember is that there were any photos taken of the object. There surely were none in the contemporary accounts - perhaps the image surfaced only much later. I do see that the pic was supposedly taken by another law enforcement officer who was 20 miles away from Spaur and Neff's position, and it is only assumed that it depicts the same object. That hardly makes sense if, in fact, the object was as low and as close as the pursuing officers seemed to think.

That being said, I find it hard to believe that these guys could have mistaken Venus for the object they followed. Anyone who's seen Venus couldn't be fooled for very long. How could a couple of experienced policemen (used to working the night shift) chase it all the way to the Pennsylvania border? It just seems unlikely.

I actually ran into Officer Neff at a local UFO group meeting in 1973 or 74. He seemed calm and intelligent (and his life didn't unravel like Spaur's). He certainly did not seem the type to misidentify a planet.
 
I grew up in NE Ohio and actually remember, as a kid, this story hitting all the local newspapers. The thing I do not remember is that there were any photos taken of the object. There surely were none in the contemporary accounts - perhaps the image surfaced only much later. I do see that the pic was supposedly taken by another law enforcement officer who was 20 miles away from Spaur and Neff's position, and it is only assumed that it depicts the same object. That hardly makes sense if, in fact, the object was as low and as close as the pursuing officers seemed to think.

That being said, I find it hard to believe that these guys could have mistaken Venus for the object they followed. Anyone who's seen Venus couldn't be fooled for very long. How could a couple of experienced policemen (used to working the night shift) chase it all the way to the Pennsylvania border? It just seems unlikely.

I actually ran into Officer Neff at a local UFO group meeting in 1973 or 74. He seemed calm and intelligent (and his life didn't unravel like Spaur's). He certainly did not seem the type to misidentify a planet.
There are very many problems indeed with trying to identify the object as Venus when one listens to the characteristics and maneuvers described in the interview. You can really hear the trauma in Spaur's voice too, sometimes. My hat is off to skeptics trying to explain these things conventionally, they certainly do their research --and then some, and that is as valuable to us as legit sightings.
 
I recently came across the following article:

The Parajournal: Famous 86-mile UFO chase in 1966 still defies Air Force 'explanation'

Source: The Times
Date: Oct 18, 2018


This case sounded familiar and was sure, around some 20 years ago, I made an attempt to possibly offer an explanation.

Not something I spent that much time on and essentially merely an exercise, using only the then available internet resources.

I have located a copy of resultant findings, which were posted on my old 'UFO Research List'.

If of interest, it's simply for the record and not a case I have time to revisit in depth.

The links therein are of course ancient!

www.forteanmedia.com/Blimp.pdf
 
I have now located the second part of my archive posting and duly uploaded to:

www.forteanmedia.com/Akron_02.pdf

I have actually taken some time to try and tidy up the points being emphasised therein and this might help:

A representative sketch of the, 'flying saucer', published by the 'Herald-Press (St Joseph, Michigan)', on 18 April, 1966.

Screenshot_20210623-164358.jpg


The Goodyear blimp with 'Skytacular' light arrangement, from the 'Logan Daily News (Ohio)', on 22 August, 1966.

Screenshot_20210623-164530.jpg


Wortk in progress, a photograph from the 'Akron Beacon Journal', published on 14 June, 1966.

Screenshot_20210623-171200~2.jpg


Of profound significance, I have also relocated the material referenced in my original supposition, especially patrolman Frank Panzanells's drawing:

raven5a.jpg


From the case files at NICAP:

http://www.nicap.org/portagedoc.htm
 
There is some archive footage of the, 'Skytacular' light show in operation:


To recap, the premise is that during April 1966, we know Goodyear's 'Mayflower' airship was being prepared at Akron, Ohio for a maiden flight with its revolutionary new, 'Skytacular' lightshow.

This took place during May 1966 at Indy 500 in Chicago.

At some point beforehand, it was presumably necessary to carry out test flights of the airship's new aerial display capabilities.

Is that the source of our enigmatic sky lights, which sparked local newspaper, 'flying saucer' headlines?

Everything seems to match, from witness accounts to the available sketches.

If the airship had not been flying on the night in question, then obviously it can be ruled out as a candidate.

However, unless such exclusion can be evidenced, this must surely be the most logical solution and infinitely more so than advocating an unfamiliar, aerial light display equates to a likelihood of some interplanetary visitation.

Just purely by coincidence...
 
I made an image of the Goodyear Blimp under hypothetical lighting conditions that have made the lower tailfin and lettering less prominent. These conditions would be fairly rare, but might cause people to observe it as being more saucer-like than it really was. The lower tailfin is reflecting mostly light from the layer of mist below, so has become practically invisible.
 

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There are very many problems indeed with trying to identify the object as Venus when one listens to the characteristics and maneuvers described in the interview.
But there are many more problems associated with the idea of police cars chasing an aerial object across 86 miles. This object was moving at the same speed as the police cars and yet appeared largely stationary when they got out of their vehicles. The best fit is something far away that maintains a constant angle to the observers. Something like a celestial object.
 
I note that a few months later a group of Kent State students claimed to have provoked the whole thing using a surplus weather balloon, auto antenna, some bottled gas, and bicycle lamp:

https://dks.library.kent.edu/?a=d&d=dks19661018-01.2.2

I don't know how widely reported this was at the time.

As for the effect a bicycle lamp can have seen against a dark sky....well, this was established by SIUFOP in their well-known 1970 hoax at Warminster, centre of a big 'flap' at the time. They used plastic bags, balloon gas and a couple of very small bulbs.

"Even we were particularly surprised by the stunning brightness and spectacular image of the small bulbs against a clear black sky, even when a mile or more distant. (It was in the days before small quartz halogen bulbs were available and we powered 2.5-volt bulbs with 4.5-volt batteries, making the bulbs very white for a short while.) The watchers on Cradle Hill were even more impressed, and it was generally rated the best sighting ever seen there. A second balloon was launched a while later on the western side of Cradle Hill and it drifted much closer to the watchers than the first balloon. Excitement on the hill was electric and emotional. Telepathic communication was claimed with the light bulb, which was said to be as bright as a searchlight and also to be metallic with portholes"
 
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This hoax balloon may explain the initial sighting, but it doesn't explain the 86 mile chase. I still favour Venus for that.

Another recent example of a a police chase has been mentioned in another thread;
https://www.police1.com/police-humo...rns-it-was-actually-jupiter-VLQEjqJVTem7Tln9/
the officer was leaving her station late Tuesday when she noticed that a bright light in the sky appeared to be “following her.” The officer jumped on the freeway but “couldn’t lose it” and called a police complaints line, saying she feared she was being “pursued” by a “drone.”
The officer was told to return to her station where she would be met by a senior officer, the report said. She was found standing in the parking lot with her hood up trying to hide from the “drone,” according to the Daily Record. That’s when she learned the bright dot was actually Jupiter, which is often visible on a clear night.
Jupiter is particularly prominent at the moment in the evening sky, and Venus is just starting to become visible in the dusk, near the Moon. I'm quite impressed that someone at the station was knowledgable enough to identify Jupiter in the recent incident. Most people haven't a clue.
 
This hoax balloon may explain the initial sighting, but it doesn't explain the 86 mile chase. I still favour Venus for that.

Another recent example of a a police chase has been mentioned in another thread;
https://www.police1.com/police-humo...rns-it-was-actually-jupiter-VLQEjqJVTem7Tln9/

Jupiter is particularly prominent at the moment in the evening sky, and Venus is just starting to become visible in the dusk, near the Moon. I'm quite impressed that someone at the station was knowledgable enough to identify Jupiter in the recent incident. Most people haven't a clue.

I kind of agree with that, the later stages of the sighting are certainly Venus. If you even try and imagine chasing a small balloon across country in a vehicle, bearing in mind a balloon will go anywhere irrespective of the directions roads take, and you'd almost certainly lose sight of it in minutes if not seconds.

I note there was at least one point where Spaur and Neff lost sight of the object completely before locating it "as if it was waiting for them". This latter is consistent with them looking around for something and spotting a bright star or planet.

The initial visuals / movement of the object while the two were on foot don't sound especially Venus-esque but an illuminated balloon would explain them quite well.

The interesting bit for me was always the abandoned car full of equipment at the start. The triangular insignia on the door was quite clearly the US 7th Army insignia - what was that all about? (Bearing in mind it may well have had nothing at all to do with the "UFO").
 
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Another thing clear from interviews with Spaur is that by his own admission he "panicked" on actually seeing the UFO, bearing in mind that he had been primed by radio traffic about a woman reporting a bright light. Perhaps he hadn't initially expected to see anything at all - after all, you wouldn't, would you - then when the object appeared over the trees he appears to have, to use a technical term, completely bricked it.

https://archive.org/details/CopsSaucersLawEnforcementAndUFOs19571981/20.mp3

I think from that point it's quite possible he could have chased anything.
 
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