Originally posted by jkrog08
I wouldn't say the case is closed and explained as a Skyhook balloon. I don't know if you read the OP but there is some major contradictions to that story.

1. The reported fact that Mantell was heard saying "My God, I see people in there". Now was there any people in the Skyhook balloon? No there was not.

2. The changing colors, speed, and direction of the craft is not consistent with a balloon of any kind.

3. The "object" was spotted in Columbia, Tennessee (where I live) BEFORE it was spotted in Nashville which is 50 miles north. That is not possible.

4. There is no way that Mantell would have confused this object with a balloon, Skyhook was not classified, only the origin and flight path was.

5. A member of Project Skyhook stated that no balloon could have came from Clinton County, Ohio because they weren't launched from there until 1952.

6. Fort Ripley in Minnesota is the only place the balloon could have came from. Yes it is possible that the balloon launched from there the day prior was responsible for some of the sightings,but it can not account for numerous other reports such as: 180 MPH speed, changing colors, changing direction rapidly, and being seen in Columbia, TN BEFORE being seen in Nashville, TN.

Originally posted by kidflash2008
The Bermuda Triangle case of the test flight aircraft disappearing is a good example. Many sources claim the pilot stated how strange the outside looked. Finally, PBS' Nova found the actual people who were there when the aircraft disappeared and found out no such statements were uttered.

Radio transmissions from Flight N3808H:
“Mayday, Mayday, Ercoupe ocho cero, eight zero, zero, Hotel. We can see a strange object in our course, we are lost, Mayday, Mayday.”
An Iberia Airlines flight IB-976 en route from Santo Domingo to Spain responded to the Mayday and received a reply:
“Ah we are going from Santo Domingo to ah San Juan International but we found ah a weird object in our course that made us change course about three different times we got it right in front of us now at one o’clock, our heading is zero seven zero degrees…our altitude one thousand six hundred a zero seven zero degrees…our VORs got lost off frequency…”
Iberia Flight IB-976 then relayed a message from San Juan Center asking N3808H to turn on their transponder.
N3808H replied that the Ercoupe was not equipped with a transponder. At 2006 Iberia IB-976 asked for their call sing and estimated position and received this reply:
“Right now we are supposed to be a about thirty five miles from the coast of Puerto Rico but we have something weird in front of us that make us lose course all the time I changed our course a second (unintelligible) our present heading right now is three hundred we are right again in the same stuff sir.”
They were not heard from again. At 2012 the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range verified the last radar position of N3808H as thirty five miles west of Puerto Rico. A search that included Santos’s father was then mounted which centered on this last radar position. It was discontinued after two days when no trace had been found. No trace was ever found.