| INVESTIGATOR'S
REPORT Fran Ridge, Investigator CASE: THE MONGO PHOTOS; MONGO, INDIANA, AUG. 31, 1994 The incident occurred at 8:30 p.m on August 31, 1994, at Mongo, Indiana, approximately 5 miles from the Michigan border (40 miles NNW of Fort Wayne). The prime witness was an area fire supervisor for the Forest Management Division, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, residing in Jackson, Michigan. The man who took the photos was a firefighter from Howell, Michigan. There was a total of six witnesses in the group, all retirees from age 45 on up, and they were sitting around a campfire at the Trading Post Campgrounds at Mongo, Indiana. Low and to the southwest it looked like the moon, glowing through the treetops. However the moon was not visible at that time. Then the object started moving, right out from behind the trees into an open area near a road and slowly moved toward the witnesses. The object glided into their area at a shallow angle, turned toward them and began to hover. Standing still, the white glow turned transparent. It looked like a white strobe light on the top of the dome. A bright red flash of light under the bottom flashed 3 or 4 times also like a strobe. After 1-3 minutes the object started moving and disappeared to the southeast very quickly. Before it was over the men had gotten four pictures to document what they had seen. A lot of talented people were involved in this Indiana investigation while I was State Director for MUFON. Besides yours truly, the investigation involved field investigators Linda Dahlkemper, Bruce Engstrom, Robert Taylor, Roger Sugden, and assisted by John Timmerman of CUFOS. The photo analysis was conducted by Dr. Richard Haines. Analysis by Richard Haines: Knowledge of the approximate maximum distance from two different ground vantage points and the angular size of the aerial object shows that it was about 19 feet in length and 8.5 feet thick (at an assumed range of 2300 feet). Further analysis suggests the object traveled approximately 3900 feet over a 30-second time span. Assuming a constant velocity; its ground speed would have been approximately 192 mph significantly faster than a blimp can fly in calm air. The suggestion that the object was an internally illuminated advertising blimp is rejected on other grounds as well. The object remains unidentified. ENDREP |