SUBJECT: LAS VEGAS PILOT KILLED CHASING SAUCER               FILE: UFO1388



From the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Jan. 8, 1948

             PILOT KILLED WHILE CHASING FLYING SAUCER

   FORT KNOX, Ky, Jan 8 (INS) - Kentucky National Guard head-
guarters revealed today that a Louisville pilot killed in the
explosion of his plane yesterday afternoon was engaged in a hunt
for "flying saucers" at the time.

   The victim was 25-year old Captain Thomas Mantell Jr., who was
returning from a training flight to Atlanta when he received
radio instructions to investigate the reported "saucer".

   Captain Mantell was killed when his plane exploded and crashed
near Franklin, Kentucky. National Guard headquarters emphasized,
however, that in it's opinion there was no connection between the
planes explosion and the flying object it was seeking to
investigate.

   Meanwhile, Godman Field commanding officer Col. Guy F. Hix
revealed that a group of Louisville scientists will join him in
watching the skies for a possible reappearance of the "flying
saucers" reported over Kentucky yesterday.

   The colonel said he wanted to determine whether the object- or
objects-seen yesterday afternoon could have been a planet or some
other celestial object.

   Col. Hix said that the air defense command at New York had
asked for a complete report of the "saucers and that he wanted
to check every possibility of determining their identity.

   It was very definite that something was seen by Kentuckians.
For the reports came from too many different persons in scattered
localities to have been the result of someones imagination.


              
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