by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”
When it comes to helicopter UFO encounters, many people interested in this subject are familiar with what has become known as “The Coyne Incident,” named after the Army Reserve helicopter pilot, Captain Lawrence Coyne. There was another helicopter incident four years later that is lesser known, but investigators at the time were quite interested in it.
According to Coyne in the UPI story out of Cleveland, he and his crew were flying from Columbus to Cleveland, Ohio, at 11:00 p.m. on October 18, 1973, when the crew chief, Robert Yanacsek saw a red light approaching them. Coyne described it as, “shaped like an airfoil or a streamlined fat cigar.” He said it had a red light on the front, a dome in the center, and a green light on the rear. He said: “I’m a military commander. I don’t believe in UFOs, little green spacemen, and all that stuff. But I had to file an official report in detail to the Army on this thing.”
According to Coyne, the object “came from the horizon to our aircraft in about 10 seconds. We were on a collision course.” Coyne said he put the helicopter into a dive and braced for impact. They were at 1000 feet. Instead of hitting them, the object stopped just above them. Coyne said, “it had a big, gray, metallic looking hull 60 feet long.” Even though the controls were set to descend, according to Coyne, the helicopter rose “from 1000 feet to 3500 feet with no power in a couple of seconds with no G-forces or other noticeable strains.”
Another case involving a helicopter came along four years later at the end of 1977. In this case, it was a police helicopter identified as the “Snoopy II.” According to the article in the February 16, 1978 Maiden, North Carolina, Times headlined, “MUFON Reports ‘Snoopy Sightings’ Was Real UFO,” a team of four Mutual UFO Network investigators determined that the encounter with UFOs reported by the Snoopy II crew and “simultaneous radar trackings of the same objects” at Douglas Airport were “genuine observations of Unidentified Flying Objects over the Tar Heel State.”
The objects were reportedly first identified as plastic laundry bags with candles underneath, but the investigators ruled out “planes, satellites, balloons, meteors, radar anomalies, atmospheric effects, etc.” The investigators are identified as Wayne LaPorte, David Oldham, Henry Morton, and North Carolina MUFON State Director George Fawcett.
The officers and the Douglas Airport air traffic controller recount the event 10 years later in the article by Bill Morris in the February 20, 1988 edition of Creative Loafing out of Charlotte, NC, headlined “UFO Memories.” According to Morris, Charlotte police officers, Howard Dellinger and Ron Arey, “were on a routine mission,” with Arey at the controls. At around 11:00 p.m. on December 27, 1977, Dellinger saw two lights coming rapidly towards them from the northwest. The officers told Morris that they thought they were seeing the landing lights of military helicopters heading for Fort Bragg. According to Arey, this was “standard military procedure until you reach a certain altitude.”
According to Morris, the lights passed over the helicopter at an altitude 200 feet above it. Arey became “uneasy” when he was unable to see any beacons, strobes, or navigational lights. Arey turned the helicopter to get a better look. As he did so, the objects came towards the helicopter as if, according to Dellinger, “their pilot(s) wanted to get a better look, too.”
Arey said he told Dellinger to turn on the spot light, but Dellinger wouldn’t, saying (with a “funny sound to his voice” according to Arey), “There are some things you don’t mess with.” Arey said: “Neither of us could believe what we both were apparently thinking. All I know is the things were flying in some sort of formation. They were shiny, metallic crafts and someone or something was at the controls.”
According to Morris, Arey contacted Douglas Airport. Air Traffic Controller Ray Bader responded and said he had four targets on his screen: an Eastern Airlines plane, the helicopter, and two unknowns.
According to Morris, the two objects came closer and Arey banked to his left. As he did so, one of the objects shot up and stopped at around 3500 feet in less than 3 seconds. Arey didn’t attempt to follow it and focused on the closer object. This object was behind the helicopter and remained so in spite of Arey’s attempts to out-maneuver it. According to him, “That craft must have been commanded by some kind of intelligence.”
According to Morris, the object suddenly took off and dropped a “fiery ball” as it did so. Arey closed in, but the Snoopy II maxed out at 140 mph. Bader estimated the object was moving at 230 mph.
The case is said to have attracted the attention of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, the Center for UFO Studies, and MUFON, all of which “sent top investigators to check on the details of this bizarre encounter.” Fawcett is said to have spent over 100 hours on the case. According to Morris, the investigators discounted “air inversion conditions and reflections from the ground” and laundry bag balloons. According to Arey, “Laundry bags don’t fly at 230 mph, shoot up to 3500 feet or track on radar.”