Free Real-Life X-Files by Joe Nickell Page A

Encounter
    “UFO Fires on Louisville, Ky. Police Chopper” was the headline on the Weekly World News’s May 4, 1993, cover story, complete with fanciful illustration. But if the tabloid account seemed overly sensational in describing the “harrowing two–minute dogfight”—before vanishing into the night—it was only following the lead of the respected Louisville Courier–Journal The Courier had used similar wording in relating the February 26 incident (which had not been immediately made public), headlining its front–page story of March 4—“UFO Puts on Show: Jefferson [County] Police Officers Describe Close Encounter.”
    Unfortunately, the Weekly World News did not cite the Courier’s follow–up report explaining the phenomenon. Yet the tabloid s tale contained numerous clues that might have tipped off an astute reader. The first sighting was of what looked like “a fire” off to the patrol craft–s left the “pear–shaped” UFO was seen in the police spotlight “drifting back and forth like a balloon on a string”; after circling the helicopter several times, the object darted away before zooming back to shoot the “fireballs” (which fortunately “fizzled out before they hit”); and then—as the helicopter pilot pushed his speed to over one hundred miles per hour—the UFO “shot past the chopper, instantly climbing hundreds of feet,” only to momentarily descend again before flying into the distance and disappearing. That the “flowing” object was only “about the size of a basketball” and that it had “hovered” before initially approaching the helicopter were additional clues from the original Courier account that the tabloid omitted.
    The Courier’s follow–up story of March 6 was headed “A Trial Balloon?” It pictured Scott Heacock and his wife, Conchys, demonstrating how they had launched a hot–air balloon Scott had made from a plastic dry–cleaning bag, strips of balsa wood, and a dozen birthday candles—a device familiar to anyone who has read Philip J. Klass’s UFOs Explained (Vintage, 1976, 28–34, plates 2a and 2b). No sooner had the balloon cleared the trees, said Heacock, than the county police helicopter encountered it and began circling, shining its spotlight on the glowing toy.
    The encounter was a comedy of errors and misperceptions. Likened to a cat chasing its tail, the helicopter was actually pushing the lightweight device around with its prop wash. In fact, as indicated by the officers’ own account, the UFO zoomed away in response to the helicopter’s sudden propulsion—behavior consistent with a lightweight object. As to the “fireballs,” they may have been melting, flaming globs of plastic, or candles that became dislodged and fell, or some other effect. (Heacock says he used the novelty “relighting” type of birthday candles as a safeguard against the wind snuffing them out. Such candles may sputter, then abruptly reflame.)

    Figure 7.1. Scott Heacock (left) puts the finishing touches on
a model hot–air balloon like the one he had launched in
Louisville, Kentucky, on February 26, 1993. Looking on
is psychologist Robert A. Baker. (Photo by Joe Nickell)
    Although one of the officers insisted the object he saw that nighttraveled at speeds too fast for a balloon, he seems not to have considered the effects of the helicopter’s prop–wash propulsion. Contacted by psychologist and skeptical investigator Robert A. Baker (with whom I investigated the case), the other officer declined to comment further, except to state his feeling that the whole affair had been “blown out of proportion” by the media. Be that as it may, a television reporter asked Scott Heacock how certain he was that his balloon was the reported UFO. Since he had witnessed the encounter and kept the balloon in sight until it was caught in the police spotlight, he replied, “I’d bet my life on it.” To another reporter, his Mexican wife explained, “I’m the only alien