Missionary Pilots' Near-collision with a Light over Ocala

Captain Cole and his co-pilot Mr Rushing were missionary pilots, flying a twin Beech registered N36H from Dallas towards Nassau on the evening of 15 September 1968. South-east of Cross City, at about 9,000 feet, a pale green flashing light began doing loops and sharp turns ahead of them. It kept this up for about 15 minutes. Jacksonville Center had nothing on its radar. Approaching Ocala they saw a white light hanging over the city. Then it came "right at us". Cole shouted "We're on a collision course". A mile or so away the light turned about 90 degrees and went down to the west. Near Palm Beach a ground radar told them an object was following them and asked them to fly a 360-degree turn. As they came round they saw a light climb, veer and descend.

What is on the record

In Blue Book case 12498 the file runs the encounter from about 21:30 to 22:45 local time. The radar contact came through the 32nd Air Division's SAGE system. Captain Harlen H. Heimbach, its senior director at Gunter Air Force Base in Alabama, spoke to the pilot by radio, and his division's height-finder radar did the tracking. The file's summary puts the object less than a mile behind the Beech. Other aircraft asked to look saw nothing. The 306th Bomb Wing at McCoy Air Force Base wrote that the object "is not explainable by this office". Hynek interviewed Cole and Heimbach by telephone. The record card's conclusion is Unidentified.

Berliner lists the case among the Blue Book Unknowns. He gives the pilot's first name as Jay and the aircraft as a Beech C-45, while the file calls him only Captain Cole. NICAP, Johnson's "UFOs on this day" and the Hatch database carry it as well.

Why it sits where it does

L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD: a released government record names who saw it. Three names are on the file: Cole, Rushing and Heimbach. Two were in the aircraft, and the third followed the contact from an air-defence post in Alabama. No second telling from outside the Air Force's file has reached the archive. The tier is a judgement on sources alone. What turned away over Ocala is not resolved here.