The Coyne Helicopter Incident: Military UFO Encounter

On October 18, 1973, an Army Reserve helicopter crew had an encounter that challenged everything they thought they knew about aviation and the laws of physics. While flying from Columbus to Cleveland, Ohio, the crew commanded by Captain Lawrence Coyne observed a UFO that nearly collided with their aircraft and somehow caused their helicopter to climb when all controls were set for descent. The incident, witnessed by ground observers as well as the crew, remains one of the most credible and unexplained military UFO encounters ever documented.

The Flight

Captain Lawrence J. Coyne was a highly experienced Army helicopter pilot with over 3,000 flying hours. On the night of October 18, 1973, he was commanding a UH-1H Huey helicopter on a routine flight from Columbus, Ohio to Cleveland Hopkins Airport. With him were First Lieutenant Arrigo Jezzi as copilot, Sergeant John Healey as crew chief, and Specialist Robert Yanacsek as flight medic.

The flight had been uneventful as they crossed over the farmland of central Ohio at approximately 2,500 feet altitude. The night was clear, with stars visible and good visibility in all directions. At approximately 11:00 PM, near Mansfield, Yanacsek noticed a red light on the eastern horizon that appeared to be pacing the helicopter.

Initially, the crew assumed the light was a routine aircraft, perhaps an F-100 from the Mansfield Air National Guard station. But when Yanacsek saw the light suddenly change course and begin heading directly toward the helicopter, the situation changed immediately.

The Object

The red light was closing on the helicopter at an alarming rate. Coyne, now aware of the approaching object, observed that it was moving far faster than any conventional aircraft. He estimated its speed at approximately 600 knots, roughly twice the speed the light should have been capable of if it were a standard military jet.

Coyne took evasive action, putting the helicopter into a powered descent. He pushed the collective down and pointed the nose toward the ground, attempting to drop below the approaching object. The helicopter descended rapidly toward a collision course with the ground, reaching approximately 1,700 feet.

And then the object was upon them.

The crew described a cigar-shaped or elongated object, gray metallic in appearance, approximately 60 feet long. The leading edge bore a red light. The trailing edge had a green light. A white or bright light was visible at the rear. The object made no sound that the crew could hear over the helicopter’s engine.

The object stopped or hovered directly above the helicopter, filling the overhead window. A green light from the object flooded the cockpit, bathing the crew in an eerie glow. The object remained above them for approximately ten seconds, though the crew’s perception of time during this period may have been affected by the intensity of the experience.

The Impossible Climb

While the object hovered above them, something impossible happened. Despite the helicopter’s controls being set for a descent, the aircraft began to climb. The collective was still bottomed out. The pitch was still down. Yet the helicopter rose from 1,700 feet to approximately 3,500 feet, a climb of 1,800 feet that should not have been physically possible given the control inputs.

The crew watched their altimeter climb while their controls insisted they should be descending. The object, whatever it was, appeared to be pulling the helicopter upward.

After approximately ten seconds, the green light went off, and the object moved away to the west, where it was last seen making a sharp turn and departing at high speed. Only then did the helicopter’s controls begin functioning normally again. Coyne leveled off and climbed to a higher altitude to continue the flight.

The crew was shaken but uninjured. They continued to Cleveland, landed safely, and immediately reported the incident to the appropriate authorities.

Ground Witnesses

The Coyne incident is strengthened considerably by the presence of independent ground witnesses. A family driving near Mansfield observed both the helicopter and a bright object interacting in the sky above them. They described seeing the helicopter’s standard lights and another object, glowing green, that descended toward the helicopter and then moved away at high speed.

The ground witnesses’ account corroborates the crew’s testimony in several key details: the presence of both objects, the green light, the close approach, and the subsequent departure of the unknown object. Their observations eliminate the possibility that the crew simply imagined or misidentified what they saw.

The Investigation

The Coyne incident received serious attention from investigators. The case was examined by multiple civilian UFO research organizations and has been studied by researchers for decades. Captain Coyne and his crew cooperated fully with investigations and submitted detailed written reports.

The crew underwent psychological evaluation and were found to be stable, credible individuals with no history of making unusual claims. Coyne, as a senior Army officer, had particularly strong incentive to avoid making claims that would damage his career, yet he consistently maintained the truth of his account.

Technical analysis of the encounter has failed to produce a conventional explanation. The behavior of the object, particularly its ability to stop abruptly after approaching at high speed and its apparent ability to affect the helicopter’s altitude, does not match any known aircraft or natural phenomenon.

Explanations proposed over the years have included misidentified aircraft, meteors, and various atmospheric phenomena. None of these explanations accounts for all aspects of the encounter, particularly the helicopter’s impossible climb while in a descending attitude.

The Crew’s Testimony

Captain Coyne and his crew maintained their accounts consistently throughout their lives. They did not seek publicity, did not profit from the encounter, and spoke about it only when asked. Their testimony remained stable across multiple tellings over many years.

Coyne was particularly emphatic that what he experienced was real and unexplained. As a career military officer and experienced pilot, he understood aviation and knew that what happened to his helicopter should not have been possible. Something had taken control of his aircraft, however briefly, and he had no explanation for how.

The other crew members similarly maintained their accounts. They described the same object, the same sequence of events, and the same impossible climb. There was no disagreement among them about what had occurred.

Analysis

The Coyne incident is considered one of the most credible UFO cases on record for several reasons. Multiple trained observers, including military personnel with thousands of flying hours, witnessed the event from inside the helicopter. Independent ground witnesses corroborated their account. Physical effects on the aircraft were observed and documented. The witnesses were credible individuals with nothing to gain from fabricating a story.

The case has been examined by skeptics who have proposed various explanations, but none has satisfactorily accounted for all aspects of the encounter. The helicopter’s climb while in descending attitude remains particularly difficult to explain in conventional terms.

Some researchers have suggested that the object may have generated a localized gravity effect or some other force that lifted the helicopter. Others have proposed that the crew’s perception of time and the sequence of events was affected by the encounter, causing them to misremember the climb. Neither explanation is entirely satisfying.

Conclusion

On a clear Ohio night in 1973, four Army crew members in a Huey helicopter encountered something that should not exist. It approached at impossible speed, stopped above them without visible means of propulsion, bathed their cockpit in green light, and somehow lifted their aircraft nearly 2,000 feet while every control input told them they should be descending.

Captain Lawrence Coyne was a professional military pilot. His job required him to understand aircraft, flight, and the physics that govern both. What happened over Mansfield that night violated the rules he had spent his career mastering. Something took control of his helicopter, demonstrated capabilities that no known technology could match, and then departed as quickly as it had arrived.

The witnesses on the ground saw it too. The object was real enough to be observed by multiple independent parties. Whatever it was, it existed in physical space and interacted with a physical aircraft.

The Coyne incident offers no easy answers. It presents credible witnesses, physical effects, and independent corroboration, all the elements that skeptics demand as evidence. Yet no explanation has emerged that accounts for what happened. The case remains open, a reminder that the sky sometimes holds things we cannot understand.

Captain Coyne flew for many more years after the incident. But he never forgot the night something impossible happened over Mansfield, when his helicopter climbed toward the stars while every instrument told him it should not be possible, when a green light filled his cockpit, and when he came face to face with something that should not exist.