What happened
On the evening of November 23, 1953, air defense radar detected an unidentified object over Lake Superior in the restricted zone around the Soo Locks. An F-89C Scorpion fighter took off from Kinross Air Force Base in Michigan with pilot Lieutenant Felix Moncla and radar operator Lieutenant Robert Wilson. Controllers guided it toward the target for about half an hour when, at an altitude of about 2,400 meters (8,000 feet), some 110 km (70 miles) from the Keweenaw Peninsula, the fighter’s return merged with the object’s return. After a moment only one blip remained on the screen, and it then disappeared from range. Searches found no wreckage of the aircraft and no bodies of the airmen.
Witnesses
Controllers at the air defense radar station; the fate of the crew – Lieutenant Felix Moncla and Lieutenant Robert Wilson – remains unknown.
Explanations and hypotheses
The Air Force stated that the target was a Canadian C-47 transport plane and that the fighter crashed into the lake after the pilot lost consciousness due to vertigo. The Royal Canadian Air Force, however, denied that any of its aircraft had been intercepted that night. The absence of wreckage and contradictions in the official statements have made the case a classic of ufology, although skeptics regard it simply as a tragic accident over a cold, deep lake.
Unexplained There is no convincing explanation.
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