The Kinross Air Force Base Incident (jet disappears while chasing UFO)
Ground Control vectored the jet toward the target, noting that the target changed course as the F-89 approached it at over 500 mph. Lt. Wilson had problems tracking the target on his onboard radar, so ground control continued to direct the jet to the target. For thirty minutes, the jet pursued the radar blip and began to close the gap as the UFO accelerated out over Lake Superior.
As Ground Control watched, the gap between the two blips on the radar screen grew smaller and smaller until the two blips became one blip. Ground Control thought that Moncla had flown over the target and that the two blips would separate again as he moved past it.
That didn't happen. Suddenly, the single blip flashed off the screen and the radar screen was clear of any return at all.
Frantically, Ground Control tried to contact the F-89 by radio. There was no response. Marking the last radar position, Ground Control dispatched an emergency message to Search and Rescue. That last sighting was about seventy miles off Keweenaw Point in upper Michigan, at an altitude of 8,000 feet, approximately 160 miles northwest of Soo Locks.
After an all night air/sea rescue search, not a trace of the plane or the men was ever found. No debris, no oil slick, nothing was ever found.
Officials at Norton Air Force Base Flying Safety Division issued a statement that "the pilot probably suffered from vertigo and crashed into the lake." However, this was merely speculation and was based on hearsay reports that Moncla was prone to vertigo.
The Air Force explained the unknown radar target at first as a Canadian DC-3, then later as a RCAF jet. Canadian officials responded that there were no Canadian aircraft in the airspace over the lake at any time during the chase. The Air Force finally stated that the F-89 had exploded at high altitude, ignoring the fact that this would have left a lot of debris on the lake surface.
NICAP investigators found that mentions of Moncla's mission - chasing an unidentified target - had been obliterated from official records. Project Bluebook files simply listed the case as an "accident."
On the night of November 23, 1953, an Air Defense Command radar detected an unidentified "target" over Lake Superior. Kinross Air Force Base, closest to the scene, alerted the 433rd Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Truax Field, Madison, Wisconsin, and an F-89C all-weather interceptor was scrambled. Radar operators watched the "blips" of the UFO and the F-89 merge on their scopes, in an apparent collision, and disappear. No trace of the plane was ever found.
Date: November 23,
1953
Location: Lake
Superior, Michigan, USA
On the evening of 23
November 1953, an Air Defense Command Ground Intercept radar controller at
Truax AFB became alerted to an "unidentified target" over Soo Locks.
He sounded the alert, and an F-89C Scorpion jet was scrambled from nearby
Kinross Field. The jet was piloted by 1st Lieutenant Felix Moncla, Jr., with
2nd Lieutenant Robert Wilson in the rear seat as radar operator.
pilot of the F89C Scorpion jet. Moncla
was accompanied by radar operator Robert Wilson in the rear seat.
Ground Control vectored the jet toward the target, noting that the target changed course as the F-89 approached it at over 500 mph. Lt. Wilson had problems tracking the target on his onboard radar, so ground control continued to direct the jet to the target. For thirty minutes, the jet pursued the radar blip and began to close the gap as the UFO accelerated out over Lake Superior.
As Ground Control watched, the gap between the two blips on the radar screen grew smaller and smaller until the two blips became one blip. Ground Control thought that Moncla had flown over the target and that the two blips would separate again as he moved past it.
That didn't happen. Suddenly, the single blip flashed off the screen and the radar screen was clear of any return at all.
Frantically, Ground Control tried to contact the F-89 by radio. There was no response. Marking the last radar position, Ground Control dispatched an emergency message to Search and Rescue. That last sighting was about seventy miles off Keweenaw Point in upper Michigan, at an altitude of 8,000 feet, approximately 160 miles northwest of Soo Locks.
After an all night air/sea rescue search, not a trace of the plane or the men was ever found. No debris, no oil slick, nothing was ever found.
Officials at Norton Air Force Base Flying Safety Division issued a statement that "the pilot probably suffered from vertigo and crashed into the lake." However, this was merely speculation and was based on hearsay reports that Moncla was prone to vertigo.
The Air Force explained the unknown radar target at first as a Canadian DC-3, then later as a RCAF jet. Canadian officials responded that there were no Canadian aircraft in the airspace over the lake at any time during the chase. The Air Force finally stated that the F-89 had exploded at high altitude, ignoring the fact that this would have left a lot of debris on the lake surface.
NICAP investigators found that mentions of Moncla's mission - chasing an unidentified target - had been obliterated from official records. Project Bluebook files simply listed the case as an "accident."
Off the record, those
that were present in the Ground Control radar room that day have expressed
other opinions. They think that whatever the F-89 was chasing directly caused
the disappearance of the jet...
Kinross
AFB / F-89 Disappearance
November 23, 1953
November 23, 1953
Lt. Felix Moncla near his F-89
Richard
Hall:
On the night of November 23, 1953, an Air Defense Command radar detected an unidentified "target" over Lake Superior. Kinross Air Force Base, closest to the scene, alerted the 433rd Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Truax Field, Madison, Wisconsin, and an F-89C all-weather interceptor was scrambled. Radar operators watched the "blips" of the UFO and the F-89 merge on their scopes, in an apparent collision, and disappear. No trace of the plane was ever found.
U S
Air Force accident-report records indicate that the F-89 was vectored west
northwest, then west, climbing to 30,000 feet. At the controls were First
Lieutenant Felix E. Moncla, Jr.; his radar observer was Second Lieutenant
Robert L. Wilson. While on a westerly course, they were cleared to
descend to 7,000 feet, turning east-northeast and coming steeply down on the
known target from above. The last radar contact placed the interceptor at
8,000 feet, 70 miles off Keeweenaw Point, and about 150 miles northwest of
Kinross AFB (now Kincheloe AFB).
The
incident is not even labeled as a "UFO" case in Air Force records;
instead, it was investigated by air-safety experts. There were several
layers of scattered clouds (one with bottoms at 5,000 to 8,000 feet) and some
snow flurries in the general area. Official records state, however, that
the air was stable and there was little or no turbulence.
The
Air Force later stated that the "UFO" turned out to be a Royal
Canadian Air Force (RCAF) C-47 "On a night flight from Winnipeg, Manitoba,
to Sudbury, Ontario Canada." The F-89 apparently had crashed for
unknown reasons after breaking off the intercept. In answer to queries
from the NATIONAL INVESTIGATIONS COMMITTEE ON AERIAL PHENOMENA (NICAP) in 1961
and again in 1963, RCAF spokesmen denied that one of their planes was
involved. Squadron Leader W. B. Totman, noting that the C-47 was said to
be on a flight plan over Canadian territory, said "... this alone would
seem to make such an intercept unlikely."
The
Air Force suggested that "... the pilot probably suffered from vertigo and
crashed into the take." Harvard University astronomer and UFO
debunker Dr. Donald H. MENZEL accepted this explanation, adding that the radar
operators probably saw a "phantom echo" of the F-89, produced by
atmospheric conditions, that merged with the radar return from the jet and
vanished with it when the plane struck the water.
Exactly
what happened that night remains unclear, as the Air Force acknowledges, and
serious unanswered questions remain. How likely is it that a pilot could
suffer from vertigo when flying on instruments, as official records indicate
was the case? If the F-89 did intercept an RCAF C-47, why did the
"blip" of the C47 also disappear off the radar scope? Or, if
Menzel's explanation is accepted and there was no actual intercept, why did the
Air Force invoke a Canadian C-47, which RCAF spokesmen later stated was not
there? No intelligence document has yet surfaced that reports the radio
communications between the pilot and radar controllers, and what each was
seeing. Without this information, it is impossible to evaluate the "true
UFO" versus the false radar returns and accidental crash explanations.
Richard Hall
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS CASE at
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