Gallipolis airship sighting: On Saturday, October 10, 1931, Harold Mackenzie was at the Ohio Riverfront when he claimed to witness a strange sight—an unidentified airship hovering in the sky above Gallipolis, Ohio. Intrigued, he contacted his friends at the Foster Dairy plant to come see it for themselves. Among those who responded were Robert P. Henke and his wife, along with Dr. Claude Parker and his wife. They gathered on First Avenue, where Mrs. Parker provided field glasses for a clearer view. As curiosity grew, more people joined the group and reportedly watched the mysterious object drift over the Ohio River.
Through the field glasses, Henke estimated the blimp to be between 100 and 150 feet long, flying at an altitude of about 300 feet. Reports of the airship also came in from neighboring areas—including Point Pleasant, West Virginia, where townspeople and state highway workers claimed to have seen it. Additional sightings were made by people on Raccoon Island and even in Huntington, West Virginia.
Then, around 2:50 PM, the blimp appeared to suddenly lose momentum. Witnesses described the craft breaking in two and trailing smoke as it plummeted toward the hills near Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia. Several onlookers claimed to have seen four parachutists eject from the burning wreckage.
Later, Lt. D. Hodgson, who was inspecting engines at the Gallipolis Airway Company around 3 PM, was approached by a man asking if he had seen the airship. Oddly, Hodgson had neither seen nor heard anything unusual. He later spoke with 20 to 30 people who all insisted they’d observed the same strange craft, which had remained stationary for nearly an hour before its sudden crash. According to them, the airship bore no visible markings and appeared to lack a cabin.
Numerous eyewitnesses reported the apparent crash to Dr. Charles E. Holzer, the owner of Gallipolis airport. The Sheriff of Mason County led a nighttime search through the wooded terrain, but by dawn, no sign of wreckage was found. On October 11, state trooper Pomroy conducted a follow-up ground search. Dr. Holzer even organized an aerial survey in hopes of locating debris or survivors, but the effort yielded nothing.
The Akron Airfield reported that all its airships were accounted for, and the Goodyear Zeppelin Company confirmed none of its blimps were missing. WV Senator H. D. Hatfield later revealed that he had requested the U.S.S. Akron to fly over Huntington’s Fairfield Stadium, but the Navy had declined, and the craft never flew over the area.
In the end, the airship was never identified. No wreckage was found, and no parachutists were ever located. Officially, there was no record of any aircraft flying in the area that day. And yet, dozens of credible witnesses swore they saw the mysterious blimp—a phantom craft that seemed to appear from nowhere, only to vanish without a trace.
Source: Appalachian Oddity
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