On November 23, 1953, radar operators at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, detected an unidentified object breaching restricted airspace over Lake Superior. An F-89C interceptor, piloted by Captain Felix Moncla and radar operator Robert L. Wilson, was scrambled from Kinross Air Force Base (renamed Kincheloe Air Force Base in 1956) located in the Eastern U.P. to investigate.
Despite the advanced technology of the era, the F-89C’s radar struggled to track the erratic movements of the mysterious object. Ground control guided Moncla as he pursued the unidentified craft at speeds exceeding 500 miles per hour.
Radar operators witnessed the two blips on the screen—the F-89C and the unknown object—converge and ultimately merge into a single point approximately 70 miles off the Keweenaw Peninsula. The combined blip continued its course before vanishing from the radar. All attempts to contact the F-89C were unsuccessful. A joint search and rescue operation by the United States and Canadian Air Forces yielded no trace of the aircraft or its crew.
The event, now known as the Kinross Incident, remains shrouded in intrigue. The U.S. Air Force’s official explanation—that the jet crashed while pursuing a stray Canadian aircraft—has been disputed by the Royal Canadian Air Force, as Sudbury Airport was under construction at the time.
While some theories, including a potential encounter with a UFO, have circulated, the most likely explanation, supported by extensive research, points to a tragic accident during a snowstorm while pursuing a lost aircraft. Captain Moncla’s gravestone in his hometown of Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, bears a poignant inscription: “Disappeared Nov. 23, 1953 intercepting an UFO over Canadian Border as Pilot of a Northrup F89 Jet Plane.”
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