UFO History - November 23, 1953
November 23, 1953 was an active day for those that follow Ufology. Not only did Guy B. Marquand, Jr., took a picture of what was originally described as a flying saucer, the USAF had an encounter with some type of craft off Lake Michigan.
Riverside, CA.
Marquand originally claimed he took the picture along a mountain road, where he and two friends had watched a “flying saucer” fly by at a high rate of speed. Unfortunately, this sighting was later recanted and was an admitted hoax, although the investigation data from the time is a bit of a mess.
The admitted hoax claimed that the object was a hubcap thrown in the air, yet, there are experts that have broke down the picture over time and claim that they don’t match the dimensions of the hubcap.
Lake Superior, MI
The headline reads “On Nov 23, 1953 A USAF Jet Disappears intercepting a UFO Sighting over Lake Michigan.”
Well not really, but that would be fitting. What is true is that on the evening of November 23, 1953 an Air Defense Command Ground Intercept radar controller at Truax AFB became alerted to an "unidentified target" over Soo Locks. A jet piloted by 1st Lieutenant Felix Moncla, Jr. was scrambled to intercept.
With ground control monitoring the situation and directing the pilot and his F-89 toward the object, the plane could not catch up. For roughly 30 minutes, Moncia followed over Lake Superior until the blips on the RADAR screen overlapped. Soon their biggest fears were realized when the blip disappeared and no targets remained on the scope.
With no communications present and the last visual sighting being about seventy miles off Keweenaw Point in upper Michigan, a search and rescue team was dispatched. This came up empty as no trace of the plane or the pilot were ever found. No debris, no oil slick, nothing was ever found.
Officials at Norton Air Force Base Flying Safety Division issued a statement shrouded in speculation, that "the pilot probably suffered from vertigo and crashed into the lake." However, no evidence was presented to back this statement.
The Air Force continued to speculate, first calling the unknown radar target at first as a Canadian DC-3, before changing it to a RCAF jet. Canadian officials threw water on this notion quickly claiming that there were no Canadian aircraft in the airspace over the lake at any time during the chase.
Eventually, the Air Force finally changed the story; the F-89 had exploded at high altitude. A plausible explanation except for the lack of debris found by the initial search and rescue team. In fact, not much can be found about Moncia’s mission in official documents, with only brief mentions to Moncia and an unidentified target.
Project Bluebook would eventually become involved, but in the end, even their files conclude that this tragedy was merely an accident.
What do you think about these two classic UFO sightings? Accident, facts, fiction, hoaxes? Sound off and let us know.
Comments
Post a Comment