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- [00:03]
Carter Roy
It's November 23, 1953. A bitterly cold night along the waters of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. At Kinross Air Force Base, radar picks up an unidentified aircraft flying over Lake Superior. Two lieutenants take off on an intercept mission. They're charged with finding out who or what they're dealing with. But somewhere along the way, the entire jet vanishes. The Kinross incident is a story ufologists know well. For decades, there's been speculation that a UFO encounter caused the disappearance, a theory popularized in the 1955 book The Flying Saucer Conspiracy. A military official said the jet simply crashed into Lake Superior. But in recent years, members of the Open Skies Project have been amassing research about the Kinross incident. What they've found suggests there's more to the story and raises some important questions. Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. I'm Carter Roy. You can find us here every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on instagram @the conspiracypod and we would love to hear from you. So if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts. Today we're talking to Kyle Carey and Zach Garner of the Open Skies Project about the research they've gathered which was integral to this episode. And we're thrilled they could be here. Stay with us.
- [01:48]
Steve Fishman
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- [02:48]
Carter Roy
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- [03:02]
Kyle Carey
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- [03:05]
Carter Roy
Banks he lost count. Just terrify these people and get them so scared that not only Would they give me the cash? They would give me their terror. It made me feel strong. All I know is we're helpless. All I know is anarchy. All I know is chaos. I just leaned into that listen to get the money and run on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Just one day after the Kinross incident in November 1953, newspapers run the story of the missing Air Force jet and two men on board. Some play up the mysterious circumstances. Other reports are less cryptic. They assert it's just a tragic accident that the pilot, Felix Monclaw, and the radar operator, Robert Wilson, died when their jet crashed into Lake Superior. In fact, that's the statement given to the press by an Air Force official. But two years later, another version of events is popularized BY now it's 1955. Initial searches for the missing lieutenants and their jet have long since been called off. That's when Donald Kehoe publishes the Flying Saucer Conspiracy. A former Marine Corps major, Kehoe claims he knows of hundreds of reports of UFO sightings, many by credible witnesses like seasoned pilots. But he says the US Government is keeping the truth from the public, and he uses Kinross as an example. Here's the version of the story Kehoe relays in his book, which we should note includes several points of speculation. On the night of November 23rd, radar operators located at what's now Calumet Air Force Station noticed a surprising blip on their screen. It was moving fast over the Soo Locks, a waterway connecting Lake Superior to other Great Lakes. Since they had no record of any flights there at that time, they classified the aircraft as unknown. Over at Kinross Air Force Base, two men were on alert. First Lieutenant Felix Monclaw, a pilot, and second Lieutenant Robert Wilson, a radar operator. As soon as they got the word, their F89 jet was scrambled and they took off in hot pursuit of the unknown aircraft, or bogey. Meanwhile, Ground Control Intercept, AKA gci, kept close watch on the radar scope. It now showed two blips, the jet and the bogey. When the bogie changed course, the controller relayed that information to Monclaw, who closed in on his target. As the jet approached, the controller radioed, target should soon be visual. And then the two blips appeared to merge into one large dot. The single dot lingered on screen for a moment, then vanished. The controller had lost radar contact with both aircraft. It looked as if there'd been a mid air collision. It was a sickening thought, but the controller knew the lieutenants could have bailed before impact. He alerted search and rescue right away, sending them out over Lake Superior. But no sign of the jet or the airmen was found. The same night Monclaw and Wilson disappeared, Kehoe claims he got an interesting phone call. See, not only had Donald Kehoe served in the Marine Corps, he'd also been a former aide to Charles Lindbergh, back when the aviator was at the height of his fame. And he'd worked as an information officer with the Civil Aeronautics Branch of the Commerce Department. So he has some high ranking friends and contacts. One of them, he says, calls him on the night of November 23, just after the F89 disappears and says the jet was hit by a flying saucer. At first, Kehoe is skeptical. He's investigated enough so called UFO encounters that by now he knows most of them turn out to be ordinary accidents. But something about this story has him pushing for answers. The next day he calls the Air Force press desk. They confirm they lost a jet. Only the spokesperson chalks it up to engine trouble, nothing more. Then Kehoe hears from another pilot that a Canadian plane was involved in the incident. He confirms this with the press desk too. They say the unidentified craft was the Canadian plane. But his source tells him the Canadians claim they didn't fly over the Soo Locks and they never saw the Air Force jet. For Kehoe, the details of the official story get harder and harder to believe. Like when the press desk says that the two blips on the radar scope never really merged. The spokesperson insists the two aircraft were close, within a few miles of each other, and the radar controller must have made a mistake. Kehoe's not buying it. He requests the investigation report, but it's classified and that's the end of it. After recounting the story, Kehoe notes that the Kinross incident came at an interesting time when. When the powers that be were at a crossroads. Would they release more information about their UFO investigations or double down on their secrecy? The conclusion he reaches is that the government has chosen the latter. A total blackout of any intel regarding UFOs. So Kehoe is left to consider other theories alone. If it was a ufo, perhaps the spacecraft had some kind of gravitational field that could stop the jet in its tracks, like a brick wall. Then again, no wreckage was ever recovered. So Keyhoe ponders another theory. That a UFO abducted the entire jet, passengers and all. Akiho laments that he doesn't get to see the official classified accident report. Who knows what kind of clues it might hold? Well, a few decades later, several documents are declassified and they tell a whole New Story this episode is brought to you by Lifelock. Not everyone is careful with your personal information, which might explain why there's a victim of identity theft every five seconds in the U.S. fortunately, there's LifeLock. LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity. If your identity is stolen, a US based restoration specialist will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year by visiting lifelock.com podcast terms apply. This episode is brought to you by Selectquote. Life insurance can have a huge impact on our family's future with Selectquote getting covered with the right policy for you and is simple and affordable. Selectquote's licensed insurance agents will tailor your experience to find a life insurance policy for your needs in as little as 15 minutes and SELECTquote partners with carriers that provide policies for many conditions. Selectquote they shop, you save. Go to selectquote.com Spotifypod today to get started in 2021, a group of friends and family from Michigan pools their resources to make a very unique purchase. An abandoned Cold War radar facility, the Calumet Air Force Station sits atop Mount Horace Greeley overlooking Lake Superior. It was once home to a state of the art radar base, the very same one from the Kinross incident. It closed down in the 80s and sat abandoned for over three decades until the folks behind the Open Skies Project came along.
- [12:02]
Zach Garner
So Open Skies Project is kind of more of a concept than anything.
- [12:07]
Carter Roy
That's Zach Garner, he's the president of the project and he joins us today along with Vice President Kyle Carey. They're part of the crew who won the property at auction.
- [12:19]
Zach Garner
This is one of many, many, many Cold War radar stations that was built due to the perceived threat of the Soviet Union, and it's one of the last that still remain in mostly intact and complete condition.
- [12:36]
Carter Roy
The group has worked to restore the grounds, established a non profit to fund and create a heritage museum, and conducted a lot of research about the history of Calumet which led them straight to the Kinross incident.
- [12:52]
Zach Garner
We've learned a ton of so this story in particular was one of the things that we kind of discovered during our research. I don't know if we knew about it beforehand, but at some point in our initial research phase we realized that the Calumet Air Force station was the radar station that was in control of the interceptor when it disappeared. And of course as soon as we figured that out we're like, okay, we're jumping all the way down this rabbit hole and we're going to learn everything that we can this incident.
- [13:28]
Carter Roy
As it turned out, Felix Monclaw and Robert Wilson were transferred over to Calumet about 19 minutes into their intercept mission. Here's Kyle.
- [13:38]
Kyle Carey
Our station was basically at the center of the story. They were the ones guiding the aircraft to the destination. That was a huge detail for me. It really kind of connected it and made it way more personal.
- [13:49]
Carter Roy
At this point, Zach and Kyle are quick to acknowledge that other researchers had already done important work on this story, like uncovering the official accident report, which has been mostly declassified as of the 2020s. They started by securing their own copy, which came with even fewer redactions. That's how they're able to piece together a clearer timeline leading up to the disappearance. The reports clarify a bunch of details, like Monclaw and Wilson had been waiting on five minute alert status, meaning they could get their F89C Scorpion Jet airborne in five minutes or less if necessary. They were actually about to be relieved from duty when their jet was scrambled around 6.22pm they only had about an hour and 45 minutes worth of fuel in their tank and radar contact was lost at 6.55pm, 33 minutes into their flight. And their last known position was approximately 48 degrees, 0 minutes north, 86 degrees, 49 minutes west. As Zach and Kyle sift through the documents, it pretty quickly becomes apparent that there are some discrepancies between Donald Kehoe's book and and the official records. Some are small details, like the intercept target was actually located about 160 miles northwest of Kinross Air Force Base, not over the Soo Locks, which are much closer, about 20 miles away. And some are bigger, like what we know about the jet's disappearance. As Monclaw and Wilson approach the bogie, radar operators at Calumet monitored the flight on their radar scope. Eventually, the two blips indicating the jet and the bogey did appear to merge on radar. That part of the story is true, but Zach and Kyle learn that doesn't necessarily mean the two aircraft collided.
- [16:08]
Zach Garner
We did a lot of research about the radar station, about how intercepts work, about the jets themselves, about procedures and policies. And I think a lot of that stuff had been relatively untapped as far as this incident goes. The dots merging on the radar scope was the expected behavior for when an intercept was occurring. And actually in the new accident report that we acquired that has the unredacted interviews, I'm gonna, I want to read the exact statement from the radar operator at that time. I'm gonna read just a piece of it. It says, and I quote, he merged perfectly with the bogey just about the time that he faded. So it says right in there, he merged perfectly with the bogey. So, I mean, clearly that is the anticipated behavior of these systems at the time.
- [17:06]
Carter Roy
So it doesn't seem like the dots merging was cause for alarm. To get a clear idea of what was going on, the researchers learn more about the equipment in use at their station back in 1953.
- [17:20]
Zach Garner
Now, what it really comes down to is just a technical thing called range resolution. In our documentation, I believe we found that the range resolution for that radar was half a mile.
- [17:34]
Kyle Carey
So if the two aircraft were within a half mile of each other, they would appear as a single blip on the radar. And that also doesn't take into account altitude differences, too. So they could be, you know, one above the other. That would be a single blip. They could be a half mile near each other and still a single blip on the radar.
- [17:52]
Carter Roy
Then there's this glaring difference between the two versions of the story. After the two blips merged, only one disappeared. The Air Force's F89 Calumet only lost contact with the jet. The radar scope actually showed the other aircraft continuing along its flight path.
- [18:15]
Zach Garner
Yeah, we don't know where both blips disappeared came from. After we did all our research, we're like, okay, what are the big question marks that are still left? And that was one of them. Can we find a source for this piece of information that says the blips both disappeared from radar? And we've never found anything to substantiate that claim.
- [18:34]
Carter Roy
Another big question mark in this story. What was the unidentified aircraft that Monclaw and Wilson were trying to intercept? Initially, it was classified as unknown, and several pages in the reports refer to it as such. But it turns out the Air Force says they knew what the bogey was, a Canadian C47. According to one statement, the reason the Canadian plane was classified as unknown was because it was flying about 30 miles off course. Someone requested what they called a correlation check, which is why Monclaw and Wilson were sent off on their intercept mission. You might recall that Donald Kehoe was told about the Canadian plane, but he didn't believe it. That might have been because, as he reported, the rumor was that the Canadians denied even being in that airspace that night. The accident report shed some light on this, too. When the Canadian pilot is interviewed, he never says he wasn't flying in the airspace. What he does say is that he never saw the F89. The thing is, these documents set parts of the record straight, but they also raise more questions. For instance, the Canadian pilot also says he didn't even know he was being intercepted.
- [20:05]
Zach Garner
That is one of the big questions that we still have, is how exactly did all this go down? There is no indication that they tried to communicate with this plane ahead of time.
- [20:16]
Kyle Carey
We've spoken to veterans and they said they wouldn't just intercept an aircraft without telling them. They would, you know, coordinate with them for this. So that would be kind of a sign that they would have spoken on radio before that. But we have not seen any evidence of that. Yeah, it's a little unusual. It's not entirely clear at this point.
- [20:38]
Carter Roy
So far, Zach and Kyle haven't found any reports that the Canadians were given a heads up about the intercept. They were kind enough to provide us with their research materials, and our producer couldn't find anything either.
- [20:52]
Zach Garner
The pilot of that plane did confirm those details in a letter that he wrote to a researcher named Gord Heath back in the early 2000s, I believe. And if we take them at their word that he was the correct person and that that letter actually came from him, he did confirm those details that he was radioed afterwards. Basically, by the time he made it to Sault Ste. Marie is about when the Air Force radioed and said, hey, did you see a jet? And he said, no, I didn't. I never saw anything. It does seem quite unusual that if they had the ability to radio this thing from the start, why didn't they start with that? Why wouldn't that be their first, you know, the first thing they do, like say, hey, you're off course. What's going on?
- [21:42]
Carter Roy
Still more confusing is if they knew it was a Canadian plane, why go through the intercept mission at all? Zach and Kyle have a theory.
- [21:53]
Zach Garner
Our best guess with that is that because all of this equipment was so new, the F89s were relatively new, the radar stations were new. Everything was new. This was all a new thing. They needed training, they needed intercepts. And in fact, in a lot of the quarterly reports that we found, not just for the Calumet Air Force station, but for a lot of the Air Force stations in the region, they constantly call out the fact that they're not getting enough training, they're not getting enough intercepts in this airspace. So we kind of think that maybe that the call was made to send out an interceptor just for a training purpose.
- [22:28]
Carter Roy
But even they admit that doesn't explain everything.
- [22:33]
Kyle Carey
There are a Few issues with that. The first was that this was a Canadian aircraft in Canadian waters at that point. It was on the Canadian side of the border, so not impossible. But that is a little unusual. They'd use a Canadian aircraft as the target for their intercept.
- [22:48]
Zach Garner
And if you look at the actual location where the F89C disappeared, it is well into the Canadian waters. I mean, it is not even close. So, you know, was the, was the C47 30 miles south of its flight path or was it just south of. Was it in US Airspace? It certainly doesn't seem like it was an in US airspace based on where the F89 disappeared. So there, there is definitely some questions there as to, you know, it doesn't. None of it really adds up.
- [23:21]
Carter Roy
So what do the documents say about the biggest question in this case? What happened to the missing F89? This episode is brought to you by Factor Optimize your nutrition this year with Factor America's number one ready to eat meal service. Factor's fresh, never frozen meals are dietitian approved. Ready to eat in just two minutes, choose from 40 weekly options across eight dietary preferences like calorie smart, protein plus, and keto. Eat smarter@factormeals.com listen50 and use code listen50 for 50 off plus free shipping on your first box factor meals.com listen50 code listen50 t's and c's apply. The air Force's investigation came to a general conclusion about what happened to the missing jet pilot and radar operator. They were victims of an unfortunate accident that caused the F89C to crash into Lake Superior right around the time the jet lost radar contact. Kyle points out a couple of statements in particular that shed some light on this theory. Two days before Christmas 1953, the commander of Monclaw and Wilson's squadron wrote a letter to a colleague. He said his organization believes the F89 stalled out when it was trying to slow down to match the bogey speed. He suggested some of the blame rested with a GCI controller who apparently never relayed to Monclaw how fast the Canadian plane was going. In another letter, a brigadier general thought the F89C might have had mechanical issues due to icing on the jet's engine. So Kyle and Zach did some more digging. On this particular jet.
- [25:13]
Kyle Carey
They had a very long history of mechanical issues. In the short time it had been in use, the F89C model came out. Official operational service started in January 1952. It had problems that carried over from the earlier models of the F89. The engine was mounted really low on the aircraft, so it tended to pick up debris off of the Runway during taxiing and takeoff and landing. To fix this, they put a screen over the engine's intake. The problem with that was the screen would collect ice at high altitudes or in bad weather. So the solution to one problem caused another problem.
- [25:50]
Carter Roy
That backs up the theory that Monclaw and Wilson ran into problems with icing on the engine. We do know that it was already cold when their jet was scrambled, and the weather only got worse as the evening wore on. But the engine screen wasn't the only problem.
- [26:08]
Kyle Carey
The biggest issue with the F89C was the structural issue, though. During tight maneuvers or high speed maneuvers, the wings could actually become detached from the aircraft and cause the entire aircraft to disintegrate mid air. I believe. Between February of 1952 and September of 1952, there were six different aircraft that disintegrated mid air, all F89s. Most of them were F89C models.
- [26:36]
Carter Roy
That year, the International Aviation Exposition was held in Detroit, Michigan. Two Korean War veterans were killed. When the F89C they were flying experienced this exact operational problem, it disintegrated in.
- [26:52]
Kyle Carey
Front of a crowd of spectators.
- [26:55]
Carter Roy
After that tragedy, the US Air Force grounded all F89s. They spent millions of dollars on modifications and put some of the jets back into use. With one caveat. Pilots could only fly them up to 80% of their total speed. However, the grounding orders may have only partially solved the problems.
- [27:20]
Zach Garner
Well, speaking of crashes. Yes, there was another crash the exact same night of this one.
- [27:28]
Carter Roy
This wasn't even the only jet from Monclaw and Wilson's squadron to meet an untimely end on November 23, 1953. Earlier that day, another F89C had crashed in Madison, Wisconsin, killing both passengers. Felix Montclaw's wife heard about the news and went to console the pilot's wife mere hours before her own husband would go missing. News reports from the time indicate that mechanical problems may have happened so suddenly that the passengers didn't have time to bail out or even radio that they were in distress, which could explain Monclaw's radio silence.
- [28:14]
Kyle Carey
I know the big saying in aviation is the three things you do in order are aviate, navigate and communicate. So your job is to fly the plane first, then to fly where you're supposed to go. And then if that's all under control, then you communicate.
- [28:27]
Zach Garner
At that point, everyone kind of just speculated that it's possible during that window of time where Communication ceased that they may have been handling the intercept completely internally, or something was going on that was more pressing than them communicating back with the radar station.
- [28:46]
Carter Roy
The Kinross incident remains an aviation mystery, although for a short while in 2006, it seemed like part of the mystery had been solved. That's when somebody calling themselves Adam Jimenez claimed he and his Great Lakes dive company found something promising at the bottom of Lake Superior. They posted sonar images on their website of what they believed to be the missing jet. But when questions about the discovery came up, the website was quietly taken down and Adam Jimenez disappeared along with it. The find was a hoax.
- [29:27]
Zach Garner
I will say we went into this with an open mind. When we started this research, we said we are not going into this with any bias. If it turns out aliens are real and this was a UFO abduction, so be it. But as we researched more and more, I think. I don't know, I can't speak for Kyle, but I think for myself, I just don't see any evidence. I don't even see a single piece of evidence that this was anything other than an unfortunate accident.
- [29:55]
Carter Roy
It's always difficult to pinpoint where certain rumors get started. But it's safe to say that Donald Kehoe's book helped to popularize the Kinross incident and the UFO theory. Shortly after the publication of his book, Kehoe became the long serving director of nicap, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. When it comes to the Kinross incident in particular, though, perhaps he wasn't the leading authority. In fact, he got a lot of details wrong. For example, throughout his book, he actually calls Kinross Kim Ross with an M. But he did make some good points in the larger scheme of things. In a 1958 interview with Mike Wallace, who would later go on to lead the show 60 Minutes, Kehoe argued that a small faction inside the government was treating American citizens like children, keeping them from sensitive knowledge about UFOs because they thought it might cause mass hysteria. Mike Wallace seemed to find it hard to believe that the government would hide that kind of information from the public. But over 65 years later, we've seen bombshell reports about the Pentagon's UAP task force tell all books like Lou Elizondo's Imminent and whistleblowers like David Grusch, who spoke about non human biologics in a televised congressional hearing in 2023. So on a grander scale, Kehoe seems to have been on the right track. But when it comes to the Kinross incident, the reports seem to tell a clearer, more straightforward story. Except for one page, one of the pilots involved in the search gave a statement in December 1953. He was part of Monclaw and Wilson's squadron and was already airborne when his colleagues went missing. So he was asked to radio Monclaw right away around 7:35pm the search pilot and his radar operator believe they heard Monclaw over the radio. They say his voice came through for about five seconds. He was in the middle of a sentence, so they couldn't make out what he was saying. Still, they went on record claiming they ran recognized the voice as Monclaus. But this happened 40 minutes after radar contact had been lost. That doesn't line up with the conclusion that the jet crashed closer to 6:55pm and unfortunately, this part of the timeline can't be confirmed until more evidence turns up.
- [32:56]
Kyle Carey
We've got a lot of loose ends we're still trying to track down. The latest one we're kind of focusing on is that wreckage that was found in 1968. There's very little documentation around that and no one has any clue where the wreckage ended up or why they discredited it at the time and said it wasn't related. So we'd love to track that down more. We need a lot of copies of Canadian records at this point. We don't have many of those yet. It'd be really nice to add those to the collection.
- [33:22]
Carter Roy
Whether it was aliens or an accident, a government jet and two people went missing and the truth has to be out there. Thank you for watching Conspiracy Theories. We're here with a new episode every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram. He Conspiracy Pod if you're watching on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts or email us@conspiracy storiespotify.com we'd like to thank Zach Garner and Kyle Carey of the Open Skies Project for their time and expertise. Their team is still restoring the Calumet Air Force Station, and you can even schedule a summer tour through their website, openskiesproject.org that's also where you can see some of the incredible research they've put together. Until next time, remember, the truth isn't always the best story, and the official story isn't always the truth. This episode was written and researched by Miki Taylor, edited by Lauren Silverman and Maggie Admire, Fact checked by Lori Siegel and video editing and sound design by Alex Button. I'm your host, Carter Roy.