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When a U.S. Fighter Pilot Got into a Dogfight with a UFO
The government explained the rapidly maneuvering lights as a weather balloon. Experts say there are holes to that theory.
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Ohio State astrophysicist Dr. Allen Hynek is recruited by the Air Force into their top-secret program investigating UFOs Partnered with Captain Michael Quinn, they investigate the case of a military pilot who survived a dogfight with an alien craft.
Chasing—and being chased by—a light
Above Fargo, North Dakota, Air Force pilot Gorman heads toward the local football field to see the score and support the home team with a flyby. Just after, Gorman engages a glowing UFO in combat after being assured by control that no other aircraft were in the sky. During the fight, Fuller loses control of his plane.
The incident, which still lacks an airtight explanation, involved a 27-minute air encounter between a veteran World War II fighter pilot named George F. Gorman and a mysterious white orb at high altitude above Fargo, North Dakota. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Gorman told a local newspaper following the October 1, 1948 event. “If anyone else had reported such a thing I would have thought they were crazy.”
Captain Ruppelt operated Project Grudge, a series of hush-hush studies conducted by the U.S. Air Force between 1947 and 1969. His mission: to determine if UFOs were a threat to national security and to scientifically analyze UFO-related data.
Dr Hynek was giving a funding presentation at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio when he receives a call from the Air Force. Meeting with Captain Quinn, Hynek initially rejects his offer to work with the Air Force. After Quinn appeals to Hynek's vanity and scientific curiosity, the professor agrees with three conditions -- he gets to keep his job at the university, a large paycheck, and the chance to study the UFO phenomenon if the chance arises.
Hynek explains his new job to his wife and son before heading off with Quinn. As the pair drive off, they are followed by a dark-colored car. Hynek and Quinn arrive at the Air National Guard Base in Fargo. Gorman is nervous and skittish and sings the lyrics of a song. Quinn questions Gorman over the incident, learning that Gorman believed the alien vessel was communicating with him through the use of a song, or a melody deep within the song. Hynek investigates the plane, finding damage craft and radiation
.( HIGHLY RADIOACTIVE )Hynek and Quinn compare notes. Quinn believes that Gorman's story is too fantastical and is trying to cover up for buzzing the football field with a bigger lie. Hynek is less convinced because the radiation on the craft is so far above the normal radiation that a plane would accumulate during flight.
That, combined with the damage, leads Hynek to think that something happened and he coins the term UFO. Quinn takes Hynek to see what he believes happened – a weather balloon that startled him when it reflected the bright lights from the stadium. Records show that one was present in the area the same night and the metal device attached to the balloon would have accounted for the damage to Gorman's plane.
In a local diner, Hynek works out the math surrounding Quinn's assertion about the weather balloon. While explaining that the math doesn't support Quinn's belief about what happened, Hynek realizes that Quinn put the same song that Gorman was singing on the jukebox. Quinn wants to wrap up the case and leave; Hynek wants proof and tells Quinn to take him up in the air and prove that a weather balloon would act the way he supposes.
Above Fargo, Quinn pilots a plane with Hynek in the back. A weather balloon has been set up and they follow Gorman's flight maneuvers as laid out in his own report. After going through a 4G dive and a hard right rudder, the plane hits the weather balloon and goes out of control.
Hymek and Quinn's plan crashes.
As Hymek comes around, he sees a man in dark Coloured coat and HAT standing by the wreckage who disappears as emergency crews arrive and place him on stretcher. Waking up in the infirmary, he finds Quinn with an injured arm sitting by his bed. Hymek and Quinn argue over the crash. Quinn tried to replicate Gorman's flight moves which he believed to be impossible but Hymek thinks he is just trying to prove his own theory. Hymek also tells him that maybe the the reason the Air Force hired him is because Quinn lets things slide too easily in his investigations without looking at them more closely.
Getting up to call his wife, he looks at the admission chart and finds Gorman's room number.
General Harding visits Quinn at the Air Base after hearing about the crash. When asked about what happened, Quinn tells him he was trying to disprove Hymek's theory. Harding rebukes him and tells him that he is not assigned to do that -- just write reports and close cases. Harding heads off to see Gorman.
Hymek meets with Gorman and finds him playing the same song and begins wondering about its significance even more. Hymek tells him that they tried to prove what happened by following his flight moves. Gorman clarifies that he said the plane did the moves, claiming that he was not in control and that the light was controlling him and showing him what it could do. Explaining about the song, he tells Hymek that it was from San Diego, not a local broadcast.
Hymek tells him that logically, that is not possible. Harding arrives and overhears the end of Hymek and Gorman's conversation but does not interrupt.
The next morning, Hymek and Quinn prepare to leave. Quinn gives Hymek the keys to the car since he has a flight back to DC. Hymek tells him that he will write the report and gets angry when Quinn tells him the report has already been written and filed. Hymek accuses him of avoiding the truth and relates his conversation with Fuller the previous night.
Quinn tells him that pilots crack up and see things sometimes but if he reports that then they will lose their flight status.
As Hymek drives home, he is tailed by a black car and then rammed from behind. He recognises the driver as the man he saw after the plane crash. The tailing car drives into an abandoned amusement park, causing Hymek to reverse and follow, chasing the man into the ruins of the park, following him into a building.
Harding and General Valentine discuss the situation in Fargo, believing they have another candidate.
In the abandoned building, Hymek finds a film running of a series of images with voices repeating a series of numbers over and over.
Hymek arrives home and greets his wife and son. He places a call to the radio station in San Diego to find out which song they were playing at the exact moment that Fuller claimed he heard. He reports the findings to Quinn and almost tells him about the images and numbers that he copied down in his notebook.
Gorman was injected with something by medical orderlies and they tell him that he will not remember a thing when it is all over. They drag him off.
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