Ohio and Pennsylvania police officers chase a bright object for about half an hour
April 17, 1966 · Ravenna, Ohio · Sighting · Secondary sources only
Around 5 am on 17 April 1966, Portage County deputies Dale Spaur and Wilbur Neff saw an object rise from woods near Atwater, Ohio, and followed it east along Route 224 and old Route 14 into Pennsylvania, joined by East Palestine officer Wayne Huston; officer Frank Panzanella saw it in Pennsylvania. The chase covered well over 60 miles. Project Blue Book's Major Hector Quintanilla, after brief phone calls, said they had first seen a satellite and then chased Venus.
Why it matters (4/5)
A police pursuit with several officers as witnesses, and a Blue Book explanation that Hynek publicly rejected.
Caveats
None of the officers accepted the explanation, and 'congressional pressures' led Quintanilla to interview Spaur and Neff in person. J. Allen Hynek was not consulted, said it could not have been Venus and called the handling 'utterly despicable.' The Condon report did not mention the case. Spaur lost his job and his family in the following months.
Sources
- Portage County 1966 (Patrick Gross, UFOs at close sight), context
- The Portage County UFO chase (Cleveland Scene), context