COYNE

1. Public Record

18 October 1973, about 23:00. An Army Reserve UH-1 over Mansfield, Ohio, Captain Lawrence Coyne in the left seat, a crew of four. A red light on the horizon that did not behave. Coyne put the helicopter into a descent. The light became a metallic cigar or wedge with a red nose, a white tail, a green wash that filled the cabin. Altimeter and magnetic compass misbehaved. They expected a collision they did not get. The object left upward. The Huey, which Coyne had been taking down through 1,700 feet, was suddenly at about 3,500 with the collective still where a descent wanted it.

Mansfield tower had no traffic to give them. The crew filed. Blue Book was already closed. The case sat in civilian files as the last clean American air-miss of that autumn wave.

I thought we were going to hit it.

2. Date of Incident

18 October 1973. Statements in the days after. No USAF project left to take them.

3. Location

Near Mansfield, Ohio, on a flight toward Cleveland. Approximate 40°45 N 082°31 W. Night, clear enough to see a light that would not stay a light.

4. Official Narrative

Army Reserve after-action from the crew. No Pentagon close that named an aircraft. Official narrative is four soldiers and a helicopter that gained height it had not asked for.

5. Witness Layer

Coyne, co-pilot Arrigo Jezzi, medic John Healey, crew chief Robert Yanacsek. Four men in one cabin. Ground witnesses later claimed a similar light. The green wash on their faces is in more than one statement.

The cabin lit up green.

6. Recovery Logistics

The Huey landed. No scratch from a collision that did not happen. Compass deviation reported. No film from the Army bird.

7. Assessment

A four-man military air-miss after Blue Book was dead. That timing is why it never got an official pigeonhole. Fireball and Orion readings have to carry a helicopter that gained 1,800 feet with the collective down. Keep the green cabin. It is the detail four men shared without needing a hobby.

8. Materials & Remains

Crew statements. No wreck, because nothing hit.

9. Key Personnel

Capt. Lawrence Coyne : Aircraft commander.

Arrigo Jezzi : Co-pilot.

John Healey / Robert Yanacsek : Medic and crew chief.

10. Aftermath

Coyne told it straight for years. Mansfield did not build a park. The 1973 wave moved on.

11. Current Archive Status

Status: Four-man Army helicopter air-miss, Mansfield, 18 October 1973. Unexpected climb. No contact. No official close.

Confidence: High that a Reserve Huey crew filed a near-collision with an unknown light that night. High that they reported cabin illumination and instrument oddity. Low that a named aircraft has been fitted to the cigar. Low that wreckage exists, because they did not hit.

Filing note

Four men in a Huey, a red light that became a shape, a green wash, a descent that turned into a climb the collective had not asked for. Tower had no traffic. Blue Book had already packed up.

The collective was still set for descent. Not a speech about propulsion. A lever left where a pilot leaves it when he is going down, and the aircraft going up anyway. That small wrong lever makes the empty night colder than any later drawing of a cigar.