The Trumbull County Disturbance

Trumbull County Investigation: Northside Hospital

A call was placed to the Northside Medical Center to determine if Air Care helicopter flights were active in the area on the night of December 14, 1994. The call was transferred to SECURITY, where Mr. Jones was kind enough to conduct a search of the log book for the information.

Jones said that the log book records helicopter flights to or from the helipad at the Northside Hospital.

"Every flight coming in or leaving this hospital is documented, they are logged in and logged out," Jones said. "We have to open the pad and prepare the fire extinguishers, all that is recorded."

Jones conducted a search through the log book for all flights to or from the hospital in December of 1994. He was informed that the date of December 14 was the day in question.

"There were no helicopter flights to our helipad on that date," Jones said. "The only listing for helicopter flights to the Northside Hospital was on December 10 and December 23."

The hospital itself does not have a helicopter of its own, nor do any other hospitals in the area. Helicopter's arriving at the Northside helipad are usually the 'Metro Lifeflight' unit or the 'STAT' helicopter out of Pittsburgh.

It was indicated that an unusual sighting of an aerial object near Sampson Drive was being investigated, and if a helicopter were to recover an accident victim from this area and transport the person to another hospital instead of Northside.

"No, that wouldn't happen," said the security officer at the hospital. "If something happend on Sampson drive, they would have been taken to one of the two local hospitals via ambulance. If necessary, they would then be flown from there [the hospital] elsewere, to Cleveland or wherever."

The 'Northside Helicopter' theory is squashed, but just because flights originating to or from the hospital have been ruled out doesn't eliminate a helicopter scenario altogether. The UFO situation in Trumbull County on December 14 may still be explainable as a misidentified helicopter... but if so, such a helicopter would have originated from someplace other than Northside. Even still, the helicopter scenario strongly contradicts the event as we understand it from close review of witness testimony, conflicting in both visual as well as audible characteristics described by witnesses to the incident.

Filed:
July 1, 1998
KENNY YOUNG