The Jefferson City "World War I helmet" object, Missouri 1967

Spring 1967. Reports of strange lights were coming in from across Missouri. Jefferson City, the state capital, sits on the Missouri River. Its Memorial Airport lies on the north bank, about two miles northeast of town. Ozark Air Lines still flew passengers in and out.

Monday, April 17. About 9:00 pm. A school principal was driving, with teachers in another car. Then something came over the Missouri River bluff. It resembled a World War I helmet. The witnesses put it at over 300 feet. Brad Sparks, cataloguing the case later, gives 350 to 400 feet and a bluish-white light.

The principal described the moment. The object "came over the top of the cliff... stood still almost directly over me for a split second like any object changing direction and then took off towards the airport." The light filled his car. "It was a terrific bright light... When I looked at my hands, it looked like I was looking at X-Ray photos."

According to Sparks, the object hung above power lines for about ten minutes. The witnesses watched it through 8x binoculars. Two smaller objects came out of its base, disc or helmet shaped, each about the size of a DC-3. Then it headed toward the airport.

The principal followed along Highway 94. At Jefferson City Memorial Airport, employees had been watching through a 30x 40 mm telescope, from about 9:40 to 10:08 pm. They saw "a flat, circular, star-like orange light flashing an intermittent red-blue." Two more witnesses were there, described in one account as attorneys.

Above them, Ozark Air Lines Flight 319 was on final approach. The crew saw two large round objects moving in various directions below their airplane. The pilot's words survive in one retelling. "I see it - It's below me - It's huge."

An Air Force lieutenant investigated locally. He recorded the case as "Unknown." J. Allen Hynek interviewed the principal on tape, and a transcript of a phone call between them exists. Donald H. Menzel wrote to Hector Quintanilla of Project Blue Book about the case. The witness's identity remains tangled. UAP Discovery names the principal as John L. Metz. Patrick Gross lists Metz among the companions in the second car. Hynek kept the witness anonymous.

Later Blue Book listings changed the verdict. First to a balloon. Then to the star Sirius. Neither change came with an explanation. No one has alleged a hoax. A distant star might be stretched to cover a flashing point of light in a telescope. It fits less easily with a 300 foot object above a car, bright enough to light up the witness's hands.

Four separate groups of witnesses. Two cars, an airport and an airliner. Hynek included the case in The UFO Experience as close encounter CE I-7, an example of a report that should not have been dismissed. Allan Hendry cited it in The UFO Handbook. Sparks lists it as case 1737 among his Blue Book Unknowns. Some catalogues, including the pages of Patrick Gross, file it under Jefferson City, Montana. Every detail of the story points to Missouri.