What happened
On April 17, 1966, at around five in the morning, Portage County sheriff’s deputies Dale Spaur and Wilbur Neff stopped by an abandoned car near Ravenna. Suddenly a bright object rose from behind the trees, lit up the surroundings, and hovered above them. On their superior’s orders they set off in pursuit. For more than an hour and a half they drove at speeds of up to 160 km/h (100 mph) across eastern Ohio, with the object staying ahead of them. Along the way other police officers joined in, including an officer from East Palestine, and the chase ended in Conway, Pennsylvania, where the object rose vertically and disappeared. The story made newspapers across the country and reached Congress.
Witnesses
Sheriff’s deputies Dale Spaur and Wilbur Neff, East Palestine police officer Wayne Huston, Conway police officer Frank Panzanella, and several other officers.
Explanations and hypotheses
Project Blue Book concluded that the officers first saw the Echo satellite and later the planet Venus, which was shining low over the horizon that morning. The officers firmly rejected this explanation, saying they had seen both of those along with the object at the same time. Dale Spaur’s life fell apart after the event, which the press presented as a cautionary tale. The case inspired the chase scene in the film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
Disputed A likely explanation exists, but some of the facts are still disputed.