THE SKY WHERE MANTELL FELL - Franklin, Kentucky. On the afternoon of January 7th, 1948, students and teachers standing in front of the Lake Spring Community School - located here at Steele Road and Lake Spring Road - looked in this direction and observed a single-prop airplane spiral out of the sky, explode into pieces in mid-air, and fall in a fiery crash onto the Phillips Farm on Witt Road, just beyond the center tree line. The plane was an F-51D Mustang piloted by Franklin-born Captain Thomas F. Mantell, Jr. (C Flight, 165th Fighter Squadron Kentucky Air National Guard) and had just had a high-altitude engagement with a large, silvery Unidentified Flying Object that was tracked traversing the Kentucky skies. Although the unexplained accident was a likely result of misidentification and a lack of oxygen, the deadly “Mantell Encounter” still remains a true mystery and a famous case in the annals of UFO history and lore. Not far from this spot, a historical monument commemorating the event stands as a tribute to Captain Mantell. Mantell spent only two days of his life in Franklin - the day of his birth and the day of his encounter with The Unknown. Photo by Michael Huntington - May, 2015. @Huntington_Strange_Travels #StrangeTravels #MichaelHuntington #HuntingtonFamily #HuntingtonAdventures #UFOTravel #ThomasFMantell #MantellUFOEncounter #1948MantellCrash #UFO #UFOs #UFOHistory #FamousUFOCase #UFOMarker #LakeSpringBaptistChurch #LakeSpringSchoolFranklinKentucky #FranklinKentucky (at Franklin, Kentucky) https://www.instagram.com/p/BukWClvlkqK/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=