Mantell UFO incident — Owensboro, Kentucky Captain Thomas Mantell was pilot for the Kentucky National Guard in 1948 when he received orders to fly after an unusual aerial object. The 25-year-old pilot took off after the craft in a P-51 Mustang fighter plane. Supposedly he crashed and died as he pursued the UFO. Believers say Mantell reported by radio that he could see tiny creatures in the mysterious aircraft. The Air Force announced that his death was a result of oxygen deprivation and that he