those few minutes. A search covering a hundred miles failed to reveal
a trace.

Whether at a high or low altitude, a balloon could not have escaped
the pilot's eyes. It would also have continued to be seen at Godman
Field and other points, through occasional breaks in the clouds.

I pointed out these facts to one Air Force officer at the Pentagon.
Next day he phoned me:

"I figured it out. The timing device went off and the balloon
exploded. That's why the pilot didn't see it."

"It's an odd coincidence," I said, "that it exploded in those five
minutes after Mantell's last report."

"Even so, it's obviously the answer," he said.

Checking on this angle, I found:

1. No one in the Kentucky area had reported a descending parachute.

2. No cosmic-ray research instrument case or parachute was found in
the area.

3. No instruments were returned to the Navy from this region. And all
balloons and instruments released at that time were fully accounted
for.