Something happened in the skies over Bad Axe on Saturday, June 3. Just exactly what happened may never be known. Some people said they saw two fighter jets locked in a cat-and-mouse game with a disc-shaped object.
According to the Huron Daily Tribune, Representatives from military air bases in the Midwest said they had no knowledge of any such incident, with one stating there were no aircraft like the ones witnesses described in the region at the time.
Christopher Bilbrey, a resident of Ubly, said he watched as two military aircraft — most likely F-16s — engaged a “white/metallic disc,” which moved with remarkable speed and maneuvering capabilities just after 10 a.m. that Saturday morning.
Bilbrey said his wife and a couple of friends were with him as he moved a camper at the storage units across Pigeon Road from the Bad Axe Meijer store when the sighting took place.
“The (Unidentified Arial Phenomenon) was extremely fast,” Bilbrey said. “It was capable of overtaking and outmaneuvering the fighter jets with extreme ease. It would overtake a jet, stop suddenly and seemed to turn toward the incoming jet (sic) like spin in their direction without moving.”
Bilbrey, who said he was a military veteran who had been stationed with the 304th Expeditionary Signal Battalion in South Korea, added he attempted to take cell phone video of the incident but glare and the altitude of the planes made it difficult.
Senior Master Sgt. Beth Holliker of the Ohio National Guard’s 180th Fighter Wing Public Affairs office said F-16s from the 180th Fighter Wing often train in the skies over the Thumb, but no such aircraft were flying over Bad Axe that day.
“I have nothing exciting to tell you,” Holliker said with a laugh during an interview with the Tribune on Thursday.
Bad Axe falls within something known as the Steelhead Military Operations Area, airspace patrolled by the 180th’s aircraft — including F-16 Fighting Falcons, Holliker added.
Penny Carroll, chief of public affairs at Selfridge Air National Guard Base near Mount Clemens, said the first her office had heard about the Bad Axe incident was Thursday morning when someone read the Tribune’s June 14 article.
Aircraft from the 148th Fighter Wing in Duluth, Minnesota, sometimes train over Michigan airspace, but those planes stick to the skies over the Upper Peninsula.
Audra Flanagan of the 148th Public Affairs office said the base was not conducting any training on June 3. However, the group at the storage units wasn’t alone. A small number of Tribune readers wrote on Facebook that they, too, saw the fighter jets and an unknown object.
“I live in Bad Axe over by Franklin Inn and was sitting outside looking north when the jets were, I thought, playing around and making noise,” Ladonna Hunt wrote on the Tribune Facebook page. “I did watch the jets about 10 a.m. June 3. The jets were so loud it was hard not to see where (they) were and what they were doing. I saw the jets and a shiny spot for quite a while going round in circles.”
