File / coyne-1973
The Coyne Helicopter Incident
An Army Reserve UH-1 crew and an unexplained climb
The crew of a military UH-1 reported an approaching object, against which the captain executed a sharp descent. Afterwards the altimeter indicated a climb of several hundred metres, although the collective remained set to descend.
Official position
Blue Book had already been terminated; the case had no federal resolution.
Alternative hypotheses
- An Orionid bolide combined with an altimeter misreading.
- An updraft plus spatial disorientation after a violent manoeuvre.
- A genuine object interacting with the helicopter.
What sets this case apart
Not the sighting, but an instrument reading inconsistent with control input. It is one of very few cases in the corpus reporting a conflict between what the pilot did and what the instrument showed.
At the same time: no recorder data survives. We have a reading remembered and reported by the crew, not a machine record. Four independent accounts is a great deal — but they remain accounts.
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