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What Did Frame 300 Capture? The Cote UFO Photo

On September 4, 1971, a Costa Rican government mapping flight photographed something unexpected above Lake Cote. Nobody aboard reported seeing it, but one frame contained a mysterious disc-shaped image that would become the subject of decades of investigation.

Michael Ryan interviews filmmaker Adam Pillon about his documentary, The Cote Photo, made with Megan Woomer. Adam shares the story behind the film, from researcher Esteban Carranza’s fascination with the photograph to meeting Sergio Loaiza, the cartographer who was aboard the mapping flight.

They discuss the enormous nine-by-nine-inch film negative, Michael Strickland’s high-resolution drum scan, and what photographic analysis can—and cannot—tell us about the image. Beyond the technical questions, the conversation explores the people whose lives have been touched by UFO experiences and why their stories matter.

Also in this episode:

• Michael and Christine continue their discussion of Battelle, nonprofit research organizations, and questions about classified research and public access.
• Christine looks at other UFO reports surrounding the famous 1967 Shag Harbour incident.
• Strange lights over New Jersey turn out to have a musical explanation.
• This week’s listener shout-out goes to Boylston, Massachusetts, with a tempting stop at Darby’s Bakery.
• Our dramatized UFO moment revisits a sighting near Batawa, Ontario, and unidentified radar targets at Canadian Forces Base Trenton.
• Joy presents Canadian aviation anomalies from CADORS reports, including unexplained collision avoidance warnings, navigation problems, and reported drone encounters.

More information:

If you would like more information on the Lake Superior Paranormal Convention click here.

If you would like more information on the Halifax Paranormal Symposium click here.

If you would like more information on Richard F. Haines and Jacques Vallée’s analysis of the Cote photograph in the Journal of Scientific Exploration click here.

If you would like more information on Adam Pillon’s documentary, The Cote Photo, including how to watch it click here.

New episodes of UFO Talker arrive every other Wednesday. Find That Human Said What? and our mini documentaries on YouTube at UFO Talker Network.

Visit www.ufotalker.ca to learn more and support the podcast through Buy Me a Coffee.

Season 5 is dedicated to the memory of Frank Thayer.

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To buy UFO Talker merchandise follow this link here.
Female announcer: Joy Ryan
Male announcer: Andrew Helbig
The National UFO Records Center link here
Christine Scott's Centennial Books 1230 Broad Street. Regina, Sask.

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The Secret Ruppelt Tape: Battelle’s Hidden UFO Connection

UFO Talker returns with the premiere episode of Season 5—and we are beginning the new season with one of our most revealing historical investigations.

Michael Ryan and Christine Scott examine a remarkable recording from a confidential 1952 meeting featuring Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, the first director of the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book. Rather than hearing Ruppelt speaking for the press or writing years later for the public, we hear him discussing the UFO problem directly with a largely military audience while the investigation was still unfolding.

The recording reveals that the Air Force had already rejected several easy explanations for the UFO phenomenon. Ruppelt discusses reliable reports that remained unexplained, concentrations of sightings near sensitive locations such as Los Alamos, White Sands and Oak Ridge, and the reluctance of airline pilots to report unusual objects because they feared ridicule or damage to their careers.

The most important clue comes when another participant asks Ruppelt about the Air Force’s relationship with the Battelle Memorial Institute. That brief exchange leads us into the largely forgotten story of Project STORK, Battelle’s scientific and intelligence work for the Air Force, and the statistical study that eventually became Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14.

We also investigate the mysterious role of Battelle scientist Howard C. Cross and the January 9, 1953 memorandum later found in the files of Project Blue Book consultant Dr. J. Allen Hynek. That document shows Cross making recommendations about how the Air Force should investigate unidentified aerial objects—and what Project STORK should disclose to the forthcoming CIA scientific panel.

Was Battelle simply providing independent scientific assistance, or could its long history of classified government research have placed it much deeper inside the UFO mystery than the public realizes? There is no proof that Battelle was deliberately used to conceal UFO information, but its involvement raises important questions about private contractors, missing records and investigations conducted beyond the reach of the original Project Blue Book office.

This Season 5 premiere also includes UFO news, Canadian civil-aviation anomaly reports from CADORS, an important announcement about UFO Talker coming to 101.3 FM CJAI Island Radio, and details about the podcast’s new every-other-Wednesday release schedule.

The entire fifth season of UFO Talker is dedicated to the memory of Michael’s journalism professor and mentor, Frank Thayer. The episode also remembers respected Canadian UFO researcher Harry Tokarz. Read Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 here The Anomalous Coalition is here. The Link for the UFO Experiencer meetup in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia is here.

Listen to UFO Talker every Saturday night at 10:00 p.m. on 101.3 FM CJAI Island Radio.

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Email: ufotalker@bell.net
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To buy UFO Talker merchandise follow this link here.
Female announcer: Joy Ryan
Male announcer: Andrew Helbig
The National UFO Records Center link here
Christine Scott's Centennial Books 1230 Broad Street. Regina, Sask.

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UFO Talker Returns for Season 5

For more than four years, UFO Talker has explored UFO reports through research, investigation, and conversations with the people closest to the stories. Michael Ryan and Christine Scott look for compelling cases that deserve a closer look, including accounts you may not have heard before.

In Season 5, we’ll bring you more witness interviews, new guests, and the questions that keep these cases open. Join us as we follow the evidence and let the people involved tell their stories.

Subscribe now so you won't miss a single episode.

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To buy UFO Talker merchandise follow this link here.
Female announcer: Joy Ryan
Male announcer: Andrew Helbig
The National UFO Records Center link here
Christine Scott's Centennial Books 1230 Broad Street. Regina, Sask.

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This week on the UFO Talker Podcast, we return to one of the most intriguing—and largely forgotten—chapters in Ontario UFO history: a series of unidentified objects reported over and around the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station during the mid-1970s.

Michael Ryan examines the work of Southern Ontario UFO researcher Dennis Prophet, a former member of the Royal Air Force who became deeply involved in UFO investigation after having his own sighting in 1974. Prophet converted a 1974 Dodge van into a mobile UFO-observation vehicle and privately published a rare booklet titled The Amazing West Hill–Pickering Sightings.

Among the incidents recorded by Prophet was a remarkable event on February 4, 1975, when CHOO Radio music director and private pilot Andy Parks reportedly saw as many as twelve UFOs near the Pickering nuclear station. Parks brought a radio news crew to the area, where the objects were also reportedly observed by three Ajax-Pickering ambulance drivers, a Durham Regional Police officer and other witnesses.

The episode also examines additional reports of bell-shaped objects over Scarborough and Pickering, including an incident in which five objects remained visible for several hours. One witness described a smaller disc apparently emerging from beneath one of the larger objects.

Michael connects these historical cases with more recent efforts to uncover information about UFO reports near Canadian nuclear facilities, including investigative journalist Daniel Otis’s attempts to obtain records from Ontario Power Generation.

Also in this episode, Christine Scott reviews The Man Who Mastered Gravity by Paul Schatzkin. The book explores the mysterious life and work of physicist and inventor Thomas Townsend Brown, his experiments involving electrogravitics, his classified military connections and his important place in UFO history as one of the founders of NICAP.

The episode also features the dramatic 1976 UFO encounter of Joseph Robichaud near Richibucto, New Brunswick, along with a roundup of Canadian civil-aviation reports involving unidentified objects.

Why have unidentified objects been reported near nuclear facilities for so many decades—and what might still remain hidden in government and corporate files?

This “Best Of” rerun was originally aired on January 24, 2024, as Season 2, Episode 21 of the UFO Talker Podcast.

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To buy UFO Talker merchandise follow this link here.
Female announcer: Joy Ryan
Male announcer: Andrew Helbig
The National UFO Records Center link here
Christine Scott's Centennial Books 1230 Broad Street. Regina, Sask.

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What Did Captain Thomas Mantell Chase? An Interview With His Grandson, Terry Mantell

This week, UFO Talker returns to one of the most important—and tragic—cases from the early history of the UFO phenomenon.

Originally released as Season 1, Episode 21, on January 18, 2023, this episode features an in-depth interview with Terry Mantell, grandson of Captain Thomas F. Mantell.

On January 7, 1948, military personnel at Godman Army Airfield in Kentucky observed an unidentified object in the sky. Captain Mantell, a decorated Second World War pilot serving with the Kentucky Air National Guard, was asked to investigate while flying a P-51 Mustang near the area.

Mantell climbed in pursuit of the object, but his aircraft crashed near Franklin, Kentucky. He was only 25 years old. The case made headlines around the world and became one of the earliest and most consequential military UFO encounters in American history.

Terry Mantell discusses the man behind the famous case: a courageous D-Day pilot, husband and father whose family spent decades searching for answers about his death. We examine Mantell’s distinguished wartime service, his extensive flying experience and the profound effect his loss had on his wife, children and mother.

The episode also explores:

• The official timeline of the January 7, 1948, encounter.
• The numerous military personnel who observed the object from the Godman control tower.
• Mantell’s final reported radio transmissions.
• Conflicting accounts of why his two wingmen ended their climb.
• The absence of statements from those wingmen in the released Air Force documents.
• Early claims that Mantell had been pursuing the planet Venus.
• The later theory that the object was a classified Skyhook balloon.
• Questions concerning whether any Skyhook balloon was actually launched that day.
• The controversial 1996 account of control-tower witness Quentin Blackwell.
• Blackwell’s claim that Mantell ordered his wingmen to return for aircraft with “hot guns.”
• His description of an enormous structured object with what appeared to be observation windows.
• The Mantell family’s belief that important information was withheld from them.

This episode does not claim to provide a definitive identification of the object. Instead, it examines the contradictions, missing testimony and unanswered questions that have prevented the Mantell Encounter from being comfortably resolved.

At the heart of the story is a family that lost a son, husband and father while he was serving his country—and which is still waiting for answers.

Originally broadcast: January 18, 2023
Original episode: Season 1, Episode 21
Summer “Best Of” repeat release: September 2, 2026

Visit www.ufotalker.ca for more information.

Listen to UFO Talker on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and other major podcast platforms.

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Female announcer: Joy Ryan
Male announcer: Andrew Helbig
The National UFO Records Center link here
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SUMMER “BEST OF” REPEAT SERIES
Season 3, Episode 5 — Originally aired November 7, 2024

Two aircraft. Two encounters near Gander International Airport. Three experienced pilots—and an unidentified object that appeared to pace their aircraft.

In this summer repeat, Michael Ryan and commentator Christine Scott revisit a remarkable series of UFO encounters over central Newfoundland in October 1974, documented in the files of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

On the night of October 10, 1974, John Breen was flying a Cessna back to Gander from Deer Lake with passenger Janice Gould when they noticed a mysterious green luminous object below the aircraft. Breen was not only a pilot but also an air traffic controller at Gander International Airport.

For approximately 25 minutes, the strange light appeared to pace the Cessna—moving ahead, dropping behind and returning beneath the aircraft. Breen even switched off his own aviation lights to make sure they weren't responsible for what he was seeing.

As the Cessna approached Gander, Breen contacted air traffic control. Controllers attempted to locate the object and a target appeared on Gander radar for two sweeps before disappearing. According to the RCMP report, the target did not appear on the radar screen as an aircraft.

But the story wasn't over.

In the early morning hours of October 11, the captain and co-pilot of a Capital Airlines DC-8 descending toward Gander International Airport encountered another unidentified object.

This time the object displayed flashing red and white lights and flew alongside the DC-8 for approximately five to seven minutes. It would move slightly ahead of the jet before returning alongside it—the same strange pacing behaviour reported during the Cessna encounter.

Both pilots stated that, in their opinion, the object was not an aircraft. Air traffic control did not detect another target during this second encounter.

Authorities connected with the early-warning defence system at Goose Bay were notified, and the RCMP report was ultimately forwarded to the National Research Council in Ottawa.

What were these objects? And why did two different aircraft encounter something displaying remarkably similar behaviour near the same major international airport within hours of one another?

Michael and Christine examine the evidence and the intriguing details preserved in the original RCMP files.

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To buy UFO Talker merchandise follow this link here.
Female announcer: Joy Ryan
Male announcer: Andrew Helbig
The National UFO Records Center link here
Christine Scott's Centennial Books 1230 Broad Street. Regina, Sask.

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Originally released as Season 3, Episode 17 on February 19, 2025.

Three women reported seeing an enormous UFO hovering over their Calgary apartment complex on January 2, 1975. According to statements taken by the RCMP, the silent grey craft approached from the distance before stopping approximately 350 feet above them.

Using the apartment building as a reference, the investigating officer estimated that the object may have measured approximately 180 feet long and 120 feet wide. The witnesses described brilliant lights around the craft and an unusual tan, Y-shaped marking across its underside.

The encounter became even stranger when the women reported that the normally populated area seemed strangely deserted. One witness screamed and jumped up and down as a man walked past, yet he apparently failed to notice either her distress or the massive object overhead.

Michael Ryan and commentator Christine Scott examine whether this disturbing sense of isolation could represent the “Oz Factor”—a sensation of altered reality sometimes reported during close UFO encounters. They also consider whether the witnesses may have experienced missing time.

Also featured in this episode:

• A 1963 Royal Canadian Air Force memo concerning Project Magnet and Canadian UFO researcher Wilbert B. Smith

• Reports of mysterious lights observed by pilots over Western Canada

• The unusual illnesses reported by former workers at Area 51

• A discussion of the important role the RCMP played in investigating Canadian UFO reports

Listen to UFO Talker on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music.

Support the show

To buy UFO Talker merchandise follow this link here.
Female announcer: Joy Ryan
Male announcer: Andrew Helbig
The National UFO Records Center link here
Christine Scott's Centennial Books 1230 Broad Street. Regina, Sask.