| INVESTIGATOR'S
REPORT Fran Ridge, Investigator CASE: PILOT INITIATES MAJOR STIR OVER INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA; DECEMBER 2; 1993 ARTC At Chicago Reports Indy Center Was In Emergency Mode On 12 Dec at 11:32 AM I received a land-line call from Diane Desimone, MUFON state director for Massachusetts. She had a computer message picked up by SSD Linda Claffey: PRODIGY (R) interactive personal services, SCIENCE & ENVIRON TOPIC: UFO TIME: 12/07 10:22 PM FROM: Confidential (Source known at UFOFC) SUBJECT: A NEW SIGHTING "I am a radar air traffic controller at the Chicago Center and this last Thursday night at approximately 5:30 PM I was working the high altitude sector that covers eastern Illinois arid western Indiana. This is typically a very busy time with a lot of departures out of Chicago. So I was a little dismayed that the Indianapolis Center, due south of me, was rerouting all of their normal traffic into my sector. This made the sector extremely busy. After it was all over. my supervisor called the Indianapolis Center supervisor to inquire about all the reroutes into my sector. As it turned out there was a pilot on the frequency at Indy Center who was completely dominating the frequency with claims of being in contact with a UFO. This contact must have been pretty significant because they took the time to clear all air traffic out of that sector. This is only done in emergency situations. The pilot must have been rather hysterical. And, as I said, this was high altitude, so it wasn't a C172 pilot, it was either an airliner or at least a business jet. That's about all I know. If you want further information you should contact the Indianapolis Air Traffic Control Center located at Indianapolis International Airport. You may be able to request tapes of the controller/pilot conversation as well under the Freedom of Information Act, as this is a US government facility. You should ask for the tapes of Sky arid Wabash sectors. I have no idea if the radar actually picked anything up, but you may be able to request an NTAP, which is radar data for that time period. Hope this helps you investigators. I believe in 8 days from now they will erase the tapes, so if you want them (had) better get your requests in. (End of transmission)." Francis Ridge: Elaine Douglas, Operation Right To Know in Washington, DC, advised me of the case on the 15th. She had the event date incorrect, but offered to help. She spoke with Katheryn E. Kuhlmann and Mr. Bob Matt of the FAA at Indianapolis International Airport right after she talked with me. On 15 Dec, I sent an Express Mail/certified letter to
the supervisor of the FAA at Indy. The purpose was to
try and delay the routine erasure of voice tapes arid
NTAP radar tapes arid readouts for 2 Dec. SSD/FI Norma
Croda had contacted the FAA two days earlier. 16 Dec. Mr. Bob Matt contacted me regarding my
letter. long conversation, not taped. I was told by
him that this is a non-case, that is, it was not a UFO
situation. There was nothing on the NTAP readouts, he
said. On 18 Dec I received the hard copy of the computer transmission that started all this for us at UFOFC on Sunday, 12 Dec. 20 Dec. Before this case was to be closed, certain steps had to be undertaken, one of which was direct contact with the source of the transmission. I had requested that Mark Rodeghier of the Center for UFO Studies contact this individual since they were both in Chicago. 4 Jan 1994 - There was a message on my recorder from
Robert Durant, colleague and Delta Airlines captain. I
returned the call later in the evening at 7:30 p.m.,
approx 30 minutes. He filed a request with the AOPA
for voice communications tapes. Apparently the
information from the FAA's Bob Matt did not jibe with
reported information. 5 Jan 1994 - Returned call from Mark Rodeghier.
"Subject" had been contacted. He is real. Sticks to
story. said incident lasted 30 minutes and there was
also a minor airliner emergency which could complicate
the issue. 11 Jan. - Landline from Durant. Had listened to the
tapes I had sent him. Incident was serious. Object was
never identified. 17 Jan. - Barry Greenwood of CAUS had received a
response from the FAA. They claim they had no record
of the event whatsoever. Greenwood said they did
something unusual for a so-called no-event, to file an
appeal! 19 Jan. - Received a landline call from FAA's Bob
Matt. Very perturbed over Bob Durant's letter. I told
him Durant was OK and that we needed to talk to the
pilot. He agreed if the pilot was conducive to this
request and said he would give Durant a call-back. A number of people were brought into my investigation of this case, including Mark Rodeghier, Barry Greenwood, and Robert Durant. I conducted many taped interviews with officials in Indianapolis without any positive results. The final conclusion was that we felt that something unusual had occurred, but we couldn't document it. The ARTC in Chicago (and his supervisor) told the truth, even told us to contact Indy Center. There was an incident, and an unidentified aircraft operating without a transponder was officially reported by another pilot to Indy Center by radio, then later by telephone. Robert Durant: Francis Ridge: Without the pilot report or other evidence, there was no way to confirm this extensive report as a UFO incident. However, it is no coincidence that the ripple effect from this incident found its way all the way to Chicago and an unusual amount of traffic was being channeled out of the region around Indianapolis. Whatever the object was, it was never identified, and caused a major stir. And since we know the story is basically true, then maybe the pilot WAS hysterical, hardly the thing you'd expect from a mere sighting of an unidentified military aircraft. As per protocols a complete report with IAC (Investigation Activity Log), copies of all reports and letters, tapes that were made when possible, including transcripts, were submitted to MUFON HQ, the DDI, CUFOS with copy retained for our records. A more detailed AIL was part of that report and is available in our case file record linked from the case directory.ENDREP |