An Associated Press report suggested confirmation of the intercept attempts. "Reports… came from Air Force Reserve pilots based at Youngstown, [Ohio] who said they attempted to follow the object but that its speed — estimated at 100 miles an hour — was too slow for their jet trainers."
The Air Force, for its part, denied that any aircraft, jets or otherwise were sent after the UFO. In a letter from the Headquarters 911th Troop Carrier Group, Medium (Reserve)(CONAC), based at the Greater Pittsburgh Airport, Information Officer Eugene F. Rehrer, wrote, "After the report was received a call was made to the Airport Tower at Greater Pittsburgh Airport. Nothing had been picked up on radar at the airport. The Air National Guard, also located at Greater Pittsburgh Airport had been called but not by this organization. F-102's [delta-winged fighters used by ADC at the time] were not scrambled to follow the UFO."
Of course, it could be pointed out that these comments refer only to the Greater Pittsburgh Airport and to F-102s. It seems from the descriptions given, and the locations given, that neither Pittsburgh nor F-102s were involved. That does not rule out other aircraft at other locations.
However, Colonel Hendricks, of the Youngstown Reserve, was interviewed on April 18. He said, "We have been erroneously quoted by the AP, also have been falsely quoted. Have had no contact with the media. In the initial release of a plane being two (sic) fast or two (sic) slow, nothing. I have attempted this morning to find out who in the organization may have had contact. Could find no one. News media had called last night and were informed that they had no information. Spoke with the writer of the Cleveland Plain Dealer ([identified in the letter only as] Bloomfield) who claims the Air Force planes were too fast. He doesn't know where the info came from. They were quering (sic) the AP wires. Youngstown did not have any aircraft airborne. Major [Quintanilla) asked him if there were any other units close. Air Force information flight in Cleveland…"
So the round of denials began. No one had any aircraft airborne and none of the radar facilities had anything unusual on their scopes. But there were deputy sheriffs who claimed to have seen some kind of aircraft attempting to close with the object. And our new stealth technology suggests that the lack of a radar return proves nothing. If we can fly aircraft over enemy anti-aircraft emplacements without being spotted, it stands to reason that an advanced technology might also be able to do that.
Weitzel, the NICAP investigator, could not find any answers to the problem. He wrote, "I checked in person at Sheriff's Office Base Radio Stations in Portage, Columbiana, and Mahoning Counties, the Youngstown Police Department, Salem Police Department, and Chippewa Barracks, Pennsylvania State Police. Could not track down the source of rumors (and signed statements) about jet or radar reports. John Beighey, Rochester Police Radio Operator, denies hearing jet or radar reports such as Panzanella mentions, and is reluctant to discuss the event. Panzanella claims something may have come via phone-microphone, if Beighey had his button down; but there is still a conflict between Beighey's and Panzanella's testimony."
Weitzel thought it might be possible that the police radios had received, briefly, the aircraft radio transmissions, though they would have been on different frequencies. He thought this was highly unlikely. In the end, he had no explanation for the problem, but did accept the Air Force denials that they had any aircraft attempting intercepts. He thought it was possible that the witnesses had seen commercial jets in the area, that the jets had nothing to do with attempted intercepts, and that their presence was a coincidence. It was not a very satisfactory explanation.
The three police officers who had been involved in the chase, that is Spaur, Neff, and Panzanella, drove to the police station in Rochester, and called the Air Force at Pittsburgh. Spaur later said, that some colonel had spoken to him briefly and then tried to persuade him that they had seen something conventional. Spaur was less than enthusiastic for that, and the colonel promised to forward the information on to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. If the colonel had kept his promise, the response from the base, and from the officers of Project Blue Book was luke warm to nearly nonexistent.
According to Spaur, he received a phone call on April 18 from a "Mister" Quintanilla, who said, "Tell me about this mirage you saw." Again, according to Spaur, he was asked if it had been in view for more than a few minutes. Spaur said they had chased it across several counties and into Pennsylvania, and had it in sight for over half an hour. At that point, Spaur said the man lost interest in the conversation. The colonel had interviewed him longer and asked more questions.
Quintanilla called Spaur a second time and again questioned him about the length of the sighting. When the deputy assured Quintanilla that he had watched the object for more than a few minutes, and had, in fact chased it, Quintanilla ended the conversation.
Less than a week later, in fact, on the following Friday, April 22, the Air Force announced the solution for the sighting. Quintanilla called the Portage County sheriff, Ross Dustman, and told him the case was resolved. His deputies had seen, first, an Echo communications satellite moving from northwest to southeast and when it was out of sight, Spaur had mistaken Venus for the same object. Spaur believed the object maneuvered in the sky because the highway changed directions giving the illusion of movement. When Quintanilla finished, according to Dustman, he (meaning Dustman) "laughed out loud." The solution was ridiculous.
Dustman told reporters for the UPI, "I go along with my men. It was not a satellite and not Venus. I've seen Venus many times, but I never saw Venus 50 feet above a road and moving from side to side like this… I have never seen Venus controlled like this seemed to be."
Spaur also had some words about the Air Force investigation and solution. "I don't know how much investigation [the Air Force] made, but evidently it wasn't a very lengthy one, or it didn't involve me… I'm definitely sure that I wasn't chasing Venus or observing Venus and running wildly over the countryside. I'm not quite that bad off."
The Air Force statement failed to mention that there were other witnesses including Spaur's partner that night, Neff. Some of those other witnesses described events that were remarkably similar to those of the police officers. About 5 a.m., two New Castle, Pennsylvania couples, while driving just a few miles from the Ohio border saw an object across a field to the west. They described it was a "hamburg" or an "ice cream cone" and that it was brilliant, "sort of like looking into a spotlight." They stopped the car and rolled down the windows, proving to themselves that it was not a reflection on the glass. At one point it flew across the road, and it always stayed about a quarter mile to a half mile in the air. Eventually it disappeared in the distance.
The whole explanation was so ridiculous, that almost no one accepted it. Ravenna [Ohio] Record-Courier reporter Carol Clapp told Weitzel that U.S. Congressman William Stanton wanted to know more about the sighting. Weitzel wrote a four-page letter outlining the problems with Blue Book's investigation and solution.
A few days later, Robert Cook, a Portage County Judge, wrote to Stanton, telling him that the officers involved were men of integrity, and that he felt "it is grossly unfair to them for the Air Force to reach any conclusion in this matter until it has conducted a real and complete investigation."
Cook wrote that, "Deputies Spaur and Neff said that they had a good look at the object and at times it was within 100 feet of them. Chief Buchert took a picture of what he saw from a greater distance… It is my further understanding that their [the Air Force] investigation of these sightings has merely consisted of telephone conversations with several of the eye witnesses and an examination of the photographs taken by Chief Buchert… The conclusion that the object sighted was the planet Venus is so ridiculous that the United States Air Force has suffered a great loss of prestige in this community."