Another police officer, Frank Panzanella, who had just finished his morning coffee, was driving up a hill. To his right, he saw a shiny object that he thought was a reflection from an aircraft. He told Air Force investigators, "I got to Mickey's Lounge on the top of the hill and I looked back and it wasn't moving so I turned the police car around and came back down Eleventh Street and went to Adamoski Service Station on Tenth Street and Route Sixty-five. I then got out of the police car and looked at the object again. I rubbed my eyes three or four times but didn't say anything to anyone for the time being. I saw two other patrol cars pull up and the officers got out and asked me if I saw it. I replied, 'SAW WHAT!' They pointed to the object and I told them I had been watching it for the last ten minutes. The object was the shape of a half of football, was very bright and about twenty-five to thirty-five feet in diameter. The object then moved out towards Harmony Township approximately [at] one thousand feet high, then it stopped, then went straight up real fast to about 3,500 feet."
At this point there were four police officers directly involved. Each described the object in a similar fashion and if the estimates of the size don't match exactly, it's not that important. What is important is that the police officers could see the moon with Venus to its right. The UFO was to the left. And, once again, they were not describing a point of light, but an solid object.
At some point during the sighting, the chief of the Mantua, Ohio police, Gerald Buchert, headed out in search of the object. He found it, or believed that he had. He watched it for fifteen or twenty minutes as it seemed to move erratically in the sky. Using a small camera with black and white film, he took a number of pictures of the object he was seeing.
It seems obvious, from the description provided in his statement, that Chief Buchert was looking at, and attempting to photograph, Venus. When someone stares at a point source of bright light in the darkened sky, normal movement of the eyeball, called auto-kinesis, gives the impression of rapid, erratic movement. The fact that the object was a point source of light and remaining stationary suggests it was not the object being chased by the police and deputies in other locations.
Analysis of the photographs, submitted to Project Blue Book, produced little of value. Major Hector Quintanilla, Jr., then the Chief of Blue Book, wrote to Buchert on April 25, 1966. In the letter, he said, "The most probable cause of the object which you were trying to photograph was the planet Venus and this was the reason that you were unable to photograph it with your camera. In order to photograph Venus, you would have to photograph it with a time exposure. This cannot be done with the type of camera you were using. Thank you for your cooperation and your interest in this matter."
Overlooking the condescending attitude shown in the letter, complete with a lecture on the proper way to photograph Venus with a small hand-held camera, it seems reasonable to accept that analysis. The Chief saw Venus. Had he had a better camera and better film, he might have gotten a good picture. I took one of Venus near Sierra Vista, Arizona that is beautiful because of the colors of the rising sun. And no, I held the camera in my hand and didn't make a time exposure. I just used a faster, color film.
There is another aspect of the case that is puzzling as well. There are police officers who suggest that the Air Force attempted to intercept the object. Panzanella called the Rochester Police and spoke to radio operator John Beighey. He suggested Beighey alert the Greater Pittsburgh Airport about the sightings, apparently believing that the Reserve unit or National Guard unit there would be able to intercept the unknown. A short time after he made the suggestion, Panzanella saw what he thought was a vapor trail in the west. Someone came over the radio and said that the interception was in progress. At that point, the UFO shot high into the sky and disappeared.
Although Panzanella had decided to wait where he was while the Ohio police officers headed home, he was told by Beighey that someone at the Air Force office in Pittsburgh wanted to interview the witnesses. There was also some discussion about an overheard remark that someone at the airport had said the object was on the screen, meaning that it was being tracked by the airport's radar.
Panzanella, headed out, red light flashing, and caught up with the other officers, that is, Spaur, Neff and Huston. He told them that the Air Force wanted to interview them.
Another police officer, Henry Kwaitanowski, who had been listening to the discussion between Panzanella and Beighey, was standing near his patrol car when he spotted jets flying away from him. He thought they looked more like commercial aircraft than fighters, but behind them he saw a shiny, football-shaped object that he thought was about the same size and altitude as the jets.
There are other hints that an interception might have taken place. According to a statement made by police officer Lonny Johnson (who was teamed with Ray Esterly), "We went to Prospect Street partway down the hill, when we saw the object in the distance at an elevation of approximately 25 degrees, estimated altitude 10,000 — 20,000 feet… Actually, first we saw one jet, then the object in front of it. We could see the jet, the exhaust space, and the contrail. The jet seemed at the same altitude of the object, going southeast. The jet seemed to be pursuing the object. While we watched, for an estimated time of no more than two minutes, we saw two more jets coming from behind, in the same direction. These two had arcing contrails, either down or curved horizontally. The object was ([according to] Esterly) less than three or even ([according to] Johnson) 1 mile(s) away, in front of the first jet. The other two were about ten miles back."
The statement continued, "The object was a bright ball, about five times the size of the jet behind it. Its color was reddish orange, perhaps from sky reflection. Brighter than the planes. We could hear no noise from the object, nor from the jets. The object's brightness did not vary."
A few moments later, according to the statement, "We returned to the Salem Police station when the four objects flew out of view… The UFO appeared to be in level flight all the time while we watched it. When we came in, the pursuit vehicle reported its location as near (the object was above) Firestone Farms, east of Columbiana."
To add the strangeness of this end of the sightings, radio operator Jack Cramer and Police Lieutenant Richard Whinnery were startled to hear, over the police radio, an unfamiliar voice, say loud and clear, "I'm going down to take a look at it… I'm right above it… It's about forty-five feet across, and it's trailing something."
The Air Force would later deny that any intercept had been attempted, but the evidence suggesting otherwise continued to grow. While the original officers to see the craft, Spaur and Neff, said nothing about a jet intercept, Panzanella, suggested that he, and Johnson and Esterly, had seen two streaks that were reminiscent of jet fighters.
William B. Weitzel, a field investigator for NICAP, interviewed a number of the principals in the case. He found more evidence of an attempted intercept of the UFO. Columbiana County Sheriff's Deputy Dave Brothers told Weitzel, "But about all I saw in the sky was, I did see three airplanes, which was denied in the newspaper, that there was no airplane. I saw three planes, and they were going in the same direction, east, into Pennsylvania. And the planes left a little vapor trail, but they weren't jets… they were running too slow for jets, because I was keeping up to them… I could make out the image of what they were, airplanes. And I only saw one jet, but that was farther east, and it looked like he was… coming west, and he just turned around and went back east, because you could see this vapor trail when he turned around and went east. But other than that, I never spotted the object they were chasing."