Riverside, Ohio, on July 25, 1947:
ACUFO-1947-07-25-RIVERSIDE-1
The newspaper The Zanesville Signal, of Zanesville, Ohio, USA, reported on July 26, 1947, that two Zanesville pilots, Gene Griffen and Rolland Jones, spotted an object floating over the Riverside airport about dusk on July 25, 1947, and took off immediately in pursuit.
They climbed to 5,600 feet before they lost sight of the object; which they identified as a balloon possibly used by the government's weather bureau.
| Date: | July 25, 1947 |
|---|---|
| Time: | Dusk. |
| Duration: | Minutes. |
| First known report date: | July 26, 1947 |
| Reporting delay: | Hours. |
| Country: | USA |
|---|---|
| State/Department: | Ohio |
| City or place: | Riverside airport. |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 2 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 or 2 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 2 |
| Reporting channel: | The press. |
|---|---|
| Visibility conditions: | Nightfall. |
| UFO observed: | Yes. |
| UFO arrival observed: | ? |
| UFO departure observed: | Yes. |
| UFO action: | Floats in the sky. |
| Witnesses action: | Observed, took plane, chased. |
| Photographs: | No. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | ? |
| Witnesses interpretation: | Weather balloon. |
| Sensors: |
[X] Visual: 2.
[ ] Airborne radar: N/A. [ ] Directional ground radar: [ ] Height finder ground radar: [ ] Photo: [ ] Film/video: [ ] EM Effects: [ ] Failures: [ ] Damages: |
|---|---|
| Hynek: | DD |
| Armed / unarmed: | Unarmed. |
| Reliability 1-3: | 2 |
| Strangeness 1-3: | 1 |
| ACUFO: | Negative case, weather balloon. |
[Ref. zas1:] NEWSPAPER "THE ZANESVILLE SIGNAL":
|
Two Zanesville pilots gave chase last night to a "flying saucer," but it turned out to be an observation balloon.
Gene Griffen and Rolland Jones spotted the object floating over Riverside airport about dusk and took off immediately in pursuit. They climbed to 5,600 feet before they lost sight of the object which they identified as a balloon possibly used by the government's weather bureau.
Nothing is said about the plane, but it was quite likely a small civilian plane such as a Piper Cub.
|
This is what is called in ufology a "negative case", i.e., a case that was readily explained by a trivial explanation by the witnesses themselves or quickly explained by others in their entourage, so that it was not initialy published as an "unexplained" case.
I think negative cases should not be ignored, because they show to what extent witnesses can be mistaken or not, and they provide a collection of prosaic explanations that can be used for comparative ufology, i.e., one should check if other cases may have the same explanations.
Negative cases also show whether the witnesses provide "imaginary" descriptions of known phenomena or not. In this case for example, they were intrigued by the object, but they only said it was an object floating in the sky. They did not claim, for example, that it was moving, or that it had portholes, etc.
Negative case, weather balloon.
* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.
| Main author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | July 9, 2026 | Creation, [zas1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | July 9, 2026 | First published. |
