Aircraft Parts Found in 1968
As part of my original investigation into the Kinross Incident, I wrote to Dr. Richard Haines, a retired researcher from Ames Research who has studied many incidents involving UFO sightings by pilots and radar operators. I requested specific information concerning the Kinross Incident, and Mr. Haines was kind enough to search through his files for relevant information which he photocopied and mailed to me.
Contained in this very interesting collection was a copy of a newspaper article printed in the Sault Star on October 30, 1968. The article was headlined "Do aircraft parts belong to missing F-89?"
Alona Bay on Lake SuperiorThe article stated that two prospectors had found aircraft parts in the bush around the Cozens Cove, Alona Bay area. This is the east shore of Lake Superior, about 70 miles north of Sault Ste. Marie. The parts had been found the previous day and by that time, the Ontario Provincial Police had already visited the site and removed a tail section from the parts found. On inspecting the parts, the OPP reported that they believed that the remnant was made from heavier metal than normally used in aircraft leading them to conclude that the parts were from the wreckage of a jet aircraft. Based on this observation, it was speculated that the parts might have been from the F-89 which went missing from Kinross in 1953 "during a routine investigation of a UFO".
This article raised my curiosity and I contacted Transport Canada and asked them if they had any records to indicate the identity of the aircraft wreckage which had been found at this location on October 29, 1968. They indicated that they had no records of this wreckage. I reasoned that if the wreckage was from a commercial or privately owned aircraft then Transport Canada should have records of the crash site. The lack of records did tend to confirm that the parts were from a military aircraft. If this were the case, then the investigation and records should have been maintained by the Department of National Defence. Knowing this, I submitted an "Access to Information" request to Department of National Defence. After searching their records, the Director of the Access to Information and Privacy Office wrote me saying that they could find no records relating to these parts.
I found this to be most mystifying. Is it possible that parts from a plane wreck were found and that neither government agency responsible for investigating such incidents had made an investigation? Or was an investigation made and the findings classified as secret? Or is it possible that the files had just been lost or "misplaced"?
In 2004, I visited Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario while on holidays. I visited the public library to search through microfilm archives from the Sault Star. I was quite happy to find that two more major articles had been published in the newspaper the day following the original article from October 30, 1968.
One article printed Oct. 31, 1968 stated "Major J. H. Parker of Kincheloe Air Base, positively identified the stabilizer found earlier this week as belonging to a high performance military jet aircraft." This article concludes "Earlier there was some conjecture it could have been wreckage from an F-89 Scorpion interceptor downed in 1953 but this later appeared unlikely". Mysteriously, the article provides no clue as to how (or why) it was that the F-89 had been eliminated.
Sault Daily Star Article - Oct. 30, 1968
Sault Daily Star, October 30, 1968
Do aircraft parts belong to lost F-89?
It is possible aircraft parts discovered Tuesday by two Cozen's Cove area prospectors could the15-year-old wreckage on an F-89 Scorpion jet interceptor.
Provincial Police today identified the tail section taken from aircraft parts discovered Tuesday as military. The remnant is made of heavier metal than normally used in aircraft, an OPP spokesman said. The prospectors found the parts near Cozens Cove, 70 miles north of here.
United States Air Force personnel in November 1953 lost contact with the ill-fated Scorpion about 160 miles north of the Kincheloe air base during a routine investigation of a UFO which later turned out to be a Canadian Air Force C-47.
Sometime later, Algoma Central Railway workers reported hearing a crash that could have been caused by the F-89, according to Sault Star files. The railway workers neard the sound only about 100 miles from the Sault.
This week, two prospectors stumbled over the aircraft parts in the bush around the Cozens Cove, Alona Bay area.
The heavier than usual metal could have been from a jet aircraft, a spokesman from the Sault federal airport said earlier this afternoon. "Some parts are (heavier) because of the heat intensity."
Reports of the 1953 air mystery indicate the Scorpion was last recorded at an altitude of 8,000 feet. If the plane exploded, parts could scatter for miles.
Searchers combed the area from Whitefish Point up around the north shore of Lake Superior, but turned up no sign of the F-89.
The possibility that the parts discovered by the two prospectors could have been from air-targets used eight or 10 years ago by Canadian ground forces or by the USAF seems unlikely although police are checking this angle.
Both a spokesman at Kincheloe and a Canadian militia spokesman who has experience with the air-targets this morning felt the description of the aircraft parts and the location where they were found was poor indication they were target pieces.
A third possibility that this could be the remains of a Cessna 170 lost on the north shore of Superior in 1964 has cropped up, but the craft was listed as private.
Sault Daily Star Article - Oct 31, 1968
Parts of plane found may be any of 7 lost
by Richard Plaunt
Fifteen winters of snows have drifted over the wreckage of a U.S. jet interceptor somewhere in the quiet, piney reaches of Algoma forests.
Northern Ontario bushlands have closely kept the secret whereabouts of that F-89 Scorpion and at least seven other private and military aircraft lost without trace since that November 1953.
Since then, only twice has the rugged Algoma woodland yielded to man's stumblings.
Once giving up its knowledge of the Wawa-bound Butler brothers' fate five years after they and their light aircraft crashed in dense fog east of Highway 17 North at mile 31. And a second time this week, with the discovery by two prospectors, of military aircraft parts in the Cozens Cove area. Officials have yet to learn its identity.
It's not the F-89 – The forest still broods over that wreckage.
Against a turbulent background of high winds and heavy snows the ill-fated interceptor was last sighted on radar about 100 miles north of Kinross (Kincheloe) Air Base Nov. 24, 1953.
With it the Scorpion took two young air force lieutenants, pilot, Lieut. Felix Monica and 2nd Lieut. Robert R. Wilson.
Radar technicians back home at Kinross tracked the missing aircraft until it merged on the scopes with a Canadian "UFO" during a routine practice session at about 7:53 p.m. Radar and radio contact at that point ceased abruptly.
Later the crew aboard the Canadian Air Corce C-47 target reported they had seen nothing of the U.S. interceptor.
According to Sault Star files, the UFO "alert" had been previously arranged with the RCAF.
November 28 the search by U.S. and Canadian forces aircraft had been called off, but reopened Nov. 30 following a statement by Algoma Central Railway workers that they had heard a crash about 100 miles north of here shortly after Kinross lost contact.
But no clue has ever turned up of the Scorpion, or its two crew members.
January 15, 1954, the Sautlt Star writes RCAF officials are mystified at their failure to locate a missing T-33 jet trainer en route to North Bay downed in heavy weather.
Search planes and helicopters fought snow and cold to search for missing pilot officer Charles Ness.
Air force officials felt the jet had gone down within thirty miles of North Bay, but never found a trace.
In February 1959, master sergeant Frank Wyman disappeared in his light aircraft over Lake Huron. Searchers found no oil slick and no debris.
In March 1969, a USAF T-33 trainer crashed 18 miles south of Kincheloe. Only one man was found. The other apparently escaped the aircraft successfully but was never rescued.
Still no clues have turned up in the disappearance of Wisconsin lawyer Thomas J. ??derson, lost between Sault Ste. Marie and White River Dec. 30, 1961.
Fifty RCAF personnel were involved in the ?? day search and ???? USAF planes from Kincheloe.
In 1966, two other civilian planes went down but search once again proved fruitless – do they too belong to the forest?
… likely jet fighter
Aircraft parts found near Cozens Cove by two prospectors may prove the wreckage from a jet fighter several years ago over Lake Superior.
Maj. J. H. Parker of the USAF Kincheloe Air Base, positively identified the stabilizer found early this week as belonging to a high performance military, jet-aircraft.
The tail section washed up from the lake, probably brought by currents to the point where the two prospectors found it near shore.
No paint was left on the section but flecks of yellow primer paint were apparent. An unexplainable maroon color could also be seen which could have been a second colour changed by the weather, or by heat.
Earlier there was some conjecture it could have been wreckage from an F-89 Scorpion interceptor downed in 1953 but this later appeared unlikely.
