WEBVTT - Season 08 Episode 35: Screwball Scramble

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<v Speaker 1>Hello, it's Richard mccleinsmith here with a quick update before

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<v Speaker 1>we dive into today's episode. Unexplained is very excited to

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<v Speaker 1>be a part of Crime Wave at Sea this November,

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<v Speaker 1>joining forces with some of the eeriest voices in the

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<v Speaker 1>world of true crime and the paranormal four nights in

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<v Speaker 1>the Caribbean, with amazing podcasts like Last Podcast on the Left,

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<v Speaker 1>Scared to Death and many more live shows, meet and greets,

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<v Speaker 1>creepy Stories under the Stars and you can be there too,

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<v Speaker 1>but don't wait. Rooms are nearly sold out. Head to

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<v Speaker 1>Crimewave Atsea dot com forward slash Unexplained to grab your

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<v Speaker 1>fan coat and lock in your cabin. We'd love to

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<v Speaker 1>see you on board. It was late one evening in

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<v Speaker 1>November nineteen fifty three, and a storm was brewing in

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<v Speaker 1>the skies of a northern Michigan, USA. Brutal winds whistled

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<v Speaker 1>across the chilly surfaces of the Great Lakes. But inside

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<v Speaker 1>the Kinross Air Force Base, just a few miles from

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<v Speaker 1>the Canadian border, all was quiet. With the long Thanksgiving

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<v Speaker 1>weekend just a couple of days away, the base was

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<v Speaker 1>emptier than usual, with some officers already on leave for

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<v Speaker 1>the week. The sound of the radar ping caught everybody

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<v Speaker 1>off guard. In the ground control suite, Second Lieutenant Douglas

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<v Speaker 1>Stuart leaned forward in his chair, squinting hard at the

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<v Speaker 1>unexpected intruder, an unidentified object in US air space about

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<v Speaker 1>one hundred and sixty miles to the northwest of the base.

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<v Speaker 1>It was heading east, but right then Douglas was more

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<v Speaker 1>concerned about its origin than its destination. It seemed to

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<v Speaker 1>be coming from a restricted air space over the Sioux Locks,

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<v Speaker 1>consisting of two canals and four parallel locks. The two

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<v Speaker 1>locks are a vital part of America's global trade infrastructure.

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<v Speaker 1>They allow cargo ships to travel from the Great Lakes

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<v Speaker 1>region all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. Any threat

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<v Speaker 1>in their vicinity was taken extremely seriously. The ground control

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<v Speaker 1>staff double checked their records, but they already knew what

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<v Speaker 1>they would find. No unscheduled aircraft had permission to fly

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<v Speaker 1>in this area, nor had any new requests come in.

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<v Speaker 1>Whatever this object in the sky was, it was not

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<v Speaker 1>playing by the rules. Since nineteen forty seven and the

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<v Speaker 1>events in Roswell, New Mexico, speculation and conspiracy theories about

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<v Speaker 1>UFOs had gripped the United States. But the people employed

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<v Speaker 1>at Kinross Air Force Base were not prone to such fantasizing.

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<v Speaker 1>Their job was to approach every situation from a rational

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<v Speaker 1>and scientific perspective. This often meant applying the principle of

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<v Speaker 1>Ockham's razor, all else being equal, the simplest explanation is

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<v Speaker 1>likely to be the correct one, and so it was

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<v Speaker 1>with that in mind that Douglas Stewart and his colleagues

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<v Speaker 1>came up with a working theory for what was going on.

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<v Speaker 1>The base was less than thirty miles from the northern border,

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<v Speaker 1>and there was a Canadian Air Force base not far

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<v Speaker 1>away on the other side. Clearly, the object was a

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<v Speaker 1>Royal Canadian Air Force transport plane that had clumsily diverged

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<v Speaker 1>from its route. Its intended flight path was probably within Canada,

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<v Speaker 1>from the base near Winnipeg to another in Ontario, but

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<v Speaker 1>thanks to the high winds and poor visibility, it had

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<v Speaker 1>veered off course just enough to veer into US airspace.

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<v Speaker 1>In other words, this was all probably a false alarm.

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<v Speaker 1>You're listening to unexplained and I'm Richard McLean Smith. Radar

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<v Speaker 1>can tell you a lot about an aircraft its position

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<v Speaker 1>in the sky, its speed of travel, and its vicinity

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<v Speaker 1>to other aircraft. But it can't provide much of a

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<v Speaker 1>visual and it definitely can't differentiate friend from foe. For

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<v Speaker 1>that back in the nineteen fifties, only human eyes will do.

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<v Speaker 1>Many air force bases have one or two Alert five aircraft,

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<v Speaker 1>that is, fighter jets that are on standby, ready to

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<v Speaker 1>be airborne within five minutes if they are needed. On

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<v Speaker 1>that night of November twenty third, nineteen fifty three, kin

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<v Speaker 1>Ross had two. The unidentified object was first spotted at

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<v Speaker 1>six seventeen p m and by six twenty p m

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<v Speaker 1>a fighter jet was ready to take off. Despite the

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<v Speaker 1>likelihood that the situation was a false alarm, it was

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<v Speaker 1>still a daunting mission. Conditions were terrible, with scattered snow

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<v Speaker 1>storms and a thick layer of cloud impacting visibility. The

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<v Speaker 1>US Air Force needed a steady hand, somebody who could

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<v Speaker 1>fly using only their instruments and keeper calm head no

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<v Speaker 1>matter what this thing turned out to be. Twenty seven

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<v Speaker 1>year old First Lieutenant Felix Montcla Junior was the man

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<v Speaker 1>for the job. Although still relatively early in his career,

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<v Speaker 1>Moncla was an experienced pilot who was no stranger to conflict.

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<v Speaker 1>He'd served in the military during World War II, then

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<v Speaker 1>re enlisted in the Air Force when the American Korean

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<v Speaker 1>War began in nineteen fifty. He'd clocked more than eight

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<v Speaker 1>hundred flying hours. At six twenty two, Moncla climbed into

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<v Speaker 1>the cockpit of an F eighty nine C fighter jet.

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<v Speaker 1>Behind him was his navigator, Second Lieutenant Robert Wilson, who

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<v Speaker 1>was in charge of radar observation, while montlor piloted the jet.

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<v Speaker 1>Designed by famed aircraft industrialist Jack Northrop, the F eighty

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<v Speaker 1>nine C was one of the best and fastest aircrafts

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<v Speaker 1>the Air Force had at its disposal. Its nickname the Scorpion,

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<v Speaker 1>referred to its distinctive lifted tail, but also to its

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<v Speaker 1>deadly capabilities. It was specifically designed to chase and intercept

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<v Speaker 1>hostile enemy aircraft. For the purposes of this mission, the

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<v Speaker 1>Scorpion was given the equally dramatic call sign Avenger. Red.

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<v Speaker 1>Monkler and Wilson ran through their usual pre flight checks,

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<v Speaker 1>making sure that the Scorpion systems were all functioning correctly,

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<v Speaker 1>and then First Lieutenant Moncla taxied the plane over to

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<v Speaker 1>its assigned runway at the base as thick flakes of

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<v Speaker 1>snow drifted down onto the cockpit window. Clare and Wilson

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<v Speaker 1>rattled about inside the cockpit as the jet eased upwards

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<v Speaker 1>through a thick blanket of low hanging cloud. Moments later

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<v Speaker 1>and they'd burst through and leveled off under the soft

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<v Speaker 1>blue light of a bright, waning gibbus. Beneath them was

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<v Speaker 1>only cloud, while above twinkled all the stars of the

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<v Speaker 1>known universe. Moncla flicked on the radio and reported his

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<v Speaker 1>position back to base, but every time he tried, the

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<v Speaker 1>signal kept cutting out due to the tumultuous weather below

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<v Speaker 1>behind him. Second Lieutenant Wilson was also struggling to track

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<v Speaker 1>their position on radar. He stared at the green blip

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<v Speaker 1>of the unidentified object on the screen with frustration. Just

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<v Speaker 1>as he seemed to have its trajectory locked in, the

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<v Speaker 1>mysterious aircraft suddenly changed direction. It was as though it

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<v Speaker 1>knew it was being chased, but whatever it was, it

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<v Speaker 1>was no match for the scorpion. After a few more

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<v Speaker 1>minutes of flying, Montless radio settled down, and with Wilson

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<v Speaker 1>finally getting a handle on the object's location, he deftly

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<v Speaker 1>began to direct Moncla to the necessary position, with Avenger

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<v Speaker 1>red zipping through the sky at five hundred miles per hour.

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<v Speaker 1>Twenty minutes later they'd caught up with it. It was

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<v Speaker 1>six fifty p m when they began closing in. At

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<v Speaker 1>Wilson's instruction, Moncla angled the nose of the scorpion downwards

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<v Speaker 1>toward the heavy cloud below and prepared to intercept the

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<v Speaker 1>unidentified object at around seven thousand feet. Back at ground control,

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<v Speaker 1>at six fifty two p m, Second Lieutenant Douglas Stuart

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<v Speaker 1>radioed Moncla to confirm they were ten miles out from

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<v Speaker 1>their target, which was roughly towards eleven o'clock from their position.

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<v Speaker 1>A burst of static came back, followed by Montler's voice

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<v Speaker 1>copy that he said a moment later. Stuart told Montcla

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<v Speaker 1>to be aware that the target would be coming up

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<v Speaker 1>on his left side but moving across to his right.

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<v Speaker 1>If he didn't see it on the first try, they

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<v Speaker 1>would redirect him to attempt a second pass. But this

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<v Speaker 1>time they heard nothing back from the cockpit. Second Lieutenant

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<v Speaker 1>Douglas Stewart wasn't too concerned about Monkler's lack of response.

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<v Speaker 1>The reception had been a problem all night, and it

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<v Speaker 1>was most likely that Moncla simply hadn't received his last message,

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<v Speaker 1>and even if they had, they were at a critical

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<v Speaker 1>moment in their flight, probably absorbed in other tasks. So

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<v Speaker 1>Stuart and his colleagues turned their attention to the radar

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<v Speaker 1>screens and watched in silent as the two green blips

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<v Speaker 1>moved closer and closer to each other. It was six

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<v Speaker 1>fifty five PM when the Scorpion's radar icon converged with

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<v Speaker 1>the unidentified object. For that brief moment, they became a

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<v Speaker 1>single blip, flashing together in unison on the screen. Typically,

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<v Speaker 1>this indicates that one aircraft has pulled in directly alongside

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<v Speaker 1>the other and the two are flying in formation. This

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<v Speaker 1>is standard procedure for an air Force intercept. Nonetheless, Stuart

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<v Speaker 1>and the rest of the team held their breath as

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<v Speaker 1>they continued to stare at the merged dots, waiting for

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<v Speaker 1>them to separate. It was strange. It seemed to be

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<v Speaker 1>taking longer than it should, until finally one of the

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<v Speaker 1>blips began to move again, but the other had completely

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<v Speaker 1>disappeared from the radar screen. Stewart and his team scrambled

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<v Speaker 1>to get a hold on the situation. They hurriedly radioed

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<v Speaker 1>the cockpit, but again they had trouble reaching the pilot.

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<v Speaker 1>For whatever reason, it looked as though First Lieutenant Monkla

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<v Speaker 1>had been forced to shoot the unidentified object out of

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<v Speaker 1>the sky. They radioed the cockpit again, but still there

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<v Speaker 1>was no answer. Then they noticed something. It wasn't the

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<v Speaker 1>unidentified object that had vanished. It was the scorpion. Stewart

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<v Speaker 1>watched on with amusement as the unidentified object continued along

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<v Speaker 1>its original east to west flight path as though nothing

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<v Speaker 1>had happened, and then after a few more seconds that

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<v Speaker 1>blip disappeared from the screen to It had to be

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<v Speaker 1>some kind of malfunction, a fault either in the plains, mechanics,

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<v Speaker 1>or something on the ground. Stuart grabbed the nearest headset

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<v Speaker 1>and made an urgent radio transmission to Avenge of Red,

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<v Speaker 1>Trying to keep his voice calm and steady. He ordered

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<v Speaker 1>Montla and Wilson to respond and confirmed their location, but

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<v Speaker 1>there was nothing but static. As he tried again and again,

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<v Speaker 1>an uneasy silence settled over the ground control room. As

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<v Speaker 1>the minutes ticked past, the knot of dread in his

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<v Speaker 1>stomach began to tighten as the unthinkable truth sank in.

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<v Speaker 1>A US Air Force Fighter jet had just dropped off

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<v Speaker 1>the face of the earth, possibly downed. After several frantic

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<v Speaker 1>moments of unanswered calls to the cockpit, Second Lieutenant Stuart

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<v Speaker 1>requested reinforcements. Although the base had a second fighter jet

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<v Speaker 1>ready to be scrambled at short notice, it was currently

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<v Speaker 1>out on a patrol flight. Stuart radioed its pilot, firstly

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<v Speaker 1>Lieutenant William Mingenback. Keeping his words as simple and dispassionate

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<v Speaker 1>as he could, he tried to explain what had happened.

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<v Speaker 1>Then he directed mingen Back to fly towards Avenger Red's

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<v Speaker 1>last known location. Stuart and his colleagues still held out

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<v Speaker 1>hope that there could be a rational explanation for it all.

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<v Speaker 1>Patchy radio reception wasn't unusual, and it was highly possible

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<v Speaker 1>that the bad weather had simply damaged some element of

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<v Speaker 1>the aircraft, leading to a total loss of radar and

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<v Speaker 1>radio contact with the ground. If another aircraft could get

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<v Speaker 1>physically close enough to the lost jet, they might be

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<v Speaker 1>able to get through to it. After thirty minutes of flying,

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<v Speaker 1>the Lieutenant Mingenback's jet approached the last known location of

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<v Speaker 1>Avenger Red. A crackling sound squawked out at the radio.

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<v Speaker 1>Through the chaos of white noise, he heard a short transmission.

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<v Speaker 1>The words were impossible to make out. It was like

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<v Speaker 1>snatches of a conversation somebody for ever in the middle

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<v Speaker 1>of a sentence, but the voice was unmistakable to Mingenbach

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<v Speaker 1>and his navigator. It was Felix Montler Junior. Then a

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<v Speaker 1>few seconds later the transmission cut out. Utterly convinced of

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<v Speaker 1>what they'd heard, Mingenbach frantically tried to re establish contact

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<v Speaker 1>with a Venger Red, but after five more failed attempts,

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<v Speaker 1>they gave up. A disappointed Lieutenant Mingenbach contacted ground control

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<v Speaker 1>to give them the update. They agreed to move to

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<v Speaker 1>Plan B, conducting a visual search of the area to

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<v Speaker 1>look for any signs of the lost aircraft. This was

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<v Speaker 1>easier said than done given the weather conditions. Asign from

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<v Speaker 1>the scattered snow storms, the cloud was unusually thick and

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<v Speaker 1>low in the sky, meaning the only way to conduct

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<v Speaker 1>a visual search was to fly at a low altitude, which,

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<v Speaker 1>in turn but the jet at high risk of icing up.

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<v Speaker 1>So a third plane was sent up to assist, one

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<v Speaker 1>that was better equipped to fly in low icy conditions

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<v Speaker 1>For close to an hour, the two jets circled the area,

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<v Speaker 1>searching for any visual signs of Avenger Red, while making

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<v Speaker 1>periodic attempts to reach the aircraft via radio. But by

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<v Speaker 1>eight thirty p m. The whole thing was beginning to

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<v Speaker 1>feel like a doomed mission. Even based on the most

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<v Speaker 1>conservative calculations, Monkler's jet would be out of fuel by now,

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<v Speaker 1>and as the snow grew heavier and the conditions more treacherous,

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<v Speaker 1>the search crews were stood down. For the rest of

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<v Speaker 1>the night. US Air Force staff and their Canadian counterparts

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<v Speaker 1>worked tirelessly to locate the missing plane. Crews on the

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<v Speaker 1>ground searched for debris, while numerous aircraft continued to patrol

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<v Speaker 1>from above as much as weather permitted, but by the

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<v Speaker 1>morning they'd found nothing. There was no debris, no signs

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<v Speaker 1>of a crash, and no trace of either the plane

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<v Speaker 1>nor its two occupants. Air Force officers are trained to

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<v Speaker 1>be ready for anything, but nobody was prepared for this scenario.

0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:32.920
<v Speaker 1>There was no protocol for a disappearing plane, and certainly

0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:35.800
<v Speaker 1>no rule book on how to explain it to the public.

0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:39.720
<v Speaker 1>The search continued for the best part of a week,

0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.640
<v Speaker 1>but was called off on November twenty eighth. Then two

0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:46.800
<v Speaker 1>days later, a glimmer of hope was offered by a

0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:50.600
<v Speaker 1>group of railway workers stationed about a hundred miles north

0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:53.920
<v Speaker 1>of the Kinross Air Force Base. They claimed to have

0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:57.840
<v Speaker 1>heard what sounded like a strange, loud crash on land

0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:01.880
<v Speaker 1>on the night in question. The search resumed for a

0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:05.560
<v Speaker 1>short time, only for rescuers to come up empty handed

0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:10.800
<v Speaker 1>once more. An initial report was filed on the night

0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:14.879
<v Speaker 1>of November twenty third, offering a brief and barebones version

0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:19.520
<v Speaker 1>of events. That report was summarized in an official news release,

0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:23.159
<v Speaker 1>which stated that the missing jet was followed by radar

0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:28.639
<v Speaker 1>until it merged with an object and then vanished. The

0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:32.800
<v Speaker 1>Chicago Tribune published a front page story under the headline

0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:39.320
<v Speaker 1>jet to aboard vanishes over Lake Superior. Within hours, the

0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:53.880
<v Speaker 1>story was making news nationwide. It's possible that the US

0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:58.800
<v Speaker 1>Air Force had simply underestimated the growing fascination with UFOs.

0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:03.879
<v Speaker 1>Either way. Seemingly stunned by the fevered attention surrounding the

0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:08.119
<v Speaker 1>disappearance of one of their planes, they quickly tried to backtrack.

0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:13.000
<v Speaker 1>They attracted their initial news statement and instead released a

0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:17.160
<v Speaker 1>new one, offering a more complete and pointedly more rational

0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:23.080
<v Speaker 1>version of events. First Lieutenant Felix Montler Junior and Second

0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:28.199
<v Speaker 1>Lieutenant Robert Wilson had been assigned to intercept an unidentified aircraft.

0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:31.640
<v Speaker 1>The mission had been a success, and the aircraft had

0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:36.600
<v Speaker 1>been intercepted and identified as a Royal Canadian air Force plane.

0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:41.119
<v Speaker 1>Radar contact had been lost shortly after the jet turned

0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:44.560
<v Speaker 1>round to head back to base, and soon after that

0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:49.960
<v Speaker 1>the plane had presumably crashed into Lake Superior. As to

0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:53.639
<v Speaker 1>why a capable pilot would have lost control of his aircraft,

0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:57.920
<v Speaker 1>the statement suggested that Montla had likely been overcome by

0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:02.360
<v Speaker 1>sudden vertigo, a rare but dangerous condition where a pilot

0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:09.439
<v Speaker 1>become spatially disorientated, potentially resulting in fatal mistakes. The plane

0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:14.280
<v Speaker 1>disappearing from radar was blamed on unusual atmospheric conditions in

0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:17.840
<v Speaker 1>the area, and the lack of wreckage was no surprise.

0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:21.800
<v Speaker 1>Lake Superior is the second largest lake in the world

0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:24.760
<v Speaker 1>in terms of surface area, with an average depth of

0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:28.960
<v Speaker 1>thirteen hundred feet. An object that landed inside it could

0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:34.480
<v Speaker 1>quite easily disappear and remain unfound to this day. On

0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:38.320
<v Speaker 1>the face of it, it all seemed plausible enough, but

0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:41.680
<v Speaker 1>the holes in the narrative were obvious to anyone who

0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:45.640
<v Speaker 1>was paying attention, and it didn't help that the authorities

0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:49.160
<v Speaker 1>couldn't seem to agree with each other about what had happened.

0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:54.320
<v Speaker 1>For a start, Canadian officials publicly refuted the US Air

0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:59.440
<v Speaker 1>Force's account. According to them, all of their aircraft were

0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:02.439
<v Speaker 1>accounted for and there had been no flights in the

0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:05.760
<v Speaker 1>area in question. On the night of November twenty third,

0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:10.400
<v Speaker 1>one Canadian Air Force plane had been flying near the border,

0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:13.400
<v Speaker 1>but they denied that it had ever crossed over into

0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:18.920
<v Speaker 1>US airspace. Whatever the unidentified object had been, it did

0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:23.000
<v Speaker 1>not come from Canada, at least according to the Canadians,

0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:35.440
<v Speaker 1>which left the tricky unanswered question where had it come from.

0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:39.080
<v Speaker 1>It didn't take long for conspiracy theories to take hold.

0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:43.760
<v Speaker 1>During the nineteen fifties, roughly a quarter of the American

0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:49.159
<v Speaker 1>population believed in what's known as the extraterrestrial hypothesis, the

0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:54.360
<v Speaker 1>idea that many unidentified flying objects are in fact alien

0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:59.199
<v Speaker 1>spacecraft from other planets. So once word got out that

0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:02.800
<v Speaker 1>two U US Air Force pilots and their jet had

0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:07.160
<v Speaker 1>vanished mysteriously without a trace at the very moment they'd

0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:11.280
<v Speaker 1>crossed paths with the UFO, many people jumped to what

0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:15.680
<v Speaker 1>they saw as the obvious conclusion it was an alien abduction.

0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:20.840
<v Speaker 1>At the time, there were a number of civilian groups

0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:26.040
<v Speaker 1>conducting research into UFOs. The largest and most well resourced

0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:31.200
<v Speaker 1>was the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, or NICAP.

0:21:32.240 --> 0:21:35.600
<v Speaker 1>In the years following the incident at Kinross Air Force Base,

0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:40.320
<v Speaker 1>they repeatedly tried to obtain more information about what exactly

0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:46.000
<v Speaker 1>had happened. Then, one day, some investigators from NICAP made

0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:50.760
<v Speaker 1>the unsettling discovery that the event was completely missing from

0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:54.800
<v Speaker 1>official Air Force records. There was no mention at all

0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:58.840
<v Speaker 1>of an intercept mission from the night of November twenty third,

0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:04.520
<v Speaker 1>nineteen fifty three. Despite their best efforts to uncover the truth,

0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:08.919
<v Speaker 1>the case went cold for more than a decade. It

0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:13.600
<v Speaker 1>was in late October nineteen sixty eight when two prospectors

0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:17.119
<v Speaker 1>were digging about near an area known as Cousin's Cove,

0:22:17.560 --> 0:22:21.320
<v Speaker 1>roughly seventy miles north of Kinross along the coast of

0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:26.280
<v Speaker 1>Lake Superior. Wandering around the bush near the shoreline, the

0:22:26.400 --> 0:22:32.200
<v Speaker 1>pair spotted some unusual metallic debris. On closer inspection, it

0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:36.879
<v Speaker 1>was quite clearly the remnants of an aircraft. After a

0:22:36.920 --> 0:22:41.199
<v Speaker 1>careful inspection from the Ontario Provincial Police, the type of

0:22:41.240 --> 0:22:43.840
<v Speaker 1>metal was found to be far heavier than would be

0:22:43.920 --> 0:22:47.840
<v Speaker 1>used in a commercial aircraft, suggesting it was very likely

0:22:48.080 --> 0:22:53.200
<v Speaker 1>to have been a military plane. Although this discovery reignited

0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:57.320
<v Speaker 1>interest in the case among UFO believers, it didn't garner

0:22:57.400 --> 0:23:02.080
<v Speaker 1>much wider attention. Report on the discovery itself are sketchy,

0:23:02.520 --> 0:23:05.280
<v Speaker 1>and there is no record of whether the debris was

0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:08.680
<v Speaker 1>ever proven to be from an F eighty nine, never

0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:11.920
<v Speaker 1>mind the one that went missing from kin Ross fifteen

0:23:12.000 --> 0:23:17.560
<v Speaker 1>years before. And so once again, the strange case of

0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:23.280
<v Speaker 1>First Lieutenant Felix Monkler's missing Scorpion jet went quiet once again.

0:23:24.840 --> 0:23:28.800
<v Speaker 1>That was until two thousand and six, when UFO researcher

0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:40.520
<v Speaker 1>Francis Ridge received a strange email. It was late August

0:23:40.640 --> 0:23:44.199
<v Speaker 1>in two thousand and six that Francis Ridge was contacted

0:23:44.240 --> 0:23:48.920
<v Speaker 1>by a man named Preston Miller. The email included an

0:23:48.920 --> 0:23:52.840
<v Speaker 1>excerpt from an Associated Press story suggesting that the missing

0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:56.320
<v Speaker 1>F eighty nine had been discovered by an underwater search

0:23:56.400 --> 0:23:59.720
<v Speaker 1>team while taking scans at the bottom of Lake Superior.

0:24:01.080 --> 0:24:04.879
<v Speaker 1>There was a link too. When Ridge clicked it, it

0:24:05.000 --> 0:24:08.360
<v Speaker 1>opened up a website for the Great Lakes Dive Company.

0:24:09.320 --> 0:24:14.000
<v Speaker 1>It contained two startling images taken with side scan sonar.

0:24:15.200 --> 0:24:18.360
<v Speaker 1>Both showed images of what looked to be a completely

0:24:18.480 --> 0:24:22.960
<v Speaker 1>intact aircraft with the telltale tip tank and upswept tail

0:24:23.200 --> 0:24:28.800
<v Speaker 1>reminiscent of the F eighty nine Scorpion. Francis Ridge immediately

0:24:28.920 --> 0:24:33.439
<v Speaker 1>posted the email on the website UFO Updates, and before

0:24:33.520 --> 0:24:38.080
<v Speaker 1>long the apparent discovery was flooding UFO forums and message

0:24:38.080 --> 0:24:41.919
<v Speaker 1>boards all over the world. When a number of reporters

0:24:41.960 --> 0:24:45.560
<v Speaker 1>attempted to contact the Great Lakes Dive Company, they were

0:24:45.560 --> 0:24:49.280
<v Speaker 1>directed to a man called Adam Jimenez, who declared himself

0:24:49.400 --> 0:24:54.199
<v Speaker 1>the group's spokesperson. Jimenez confirmed the images were real with

0:24:54.280 --> 0:24:57.840
<v Speaker 1>a number of outlets, and even appeared on famed late

0:24:57.920 --> 0:25:01.640
<v Speaker 1>night talk show Coast to Coast talking to much revered

0:25:01.800 --> 0:25:07.879
<v Speaker 1>UFO researcher Linda Moulton Howe. What Jimenez then revealed was

0:25:07.920 --> 0:25:11.199
<v Speaker 1>that something else had also been found at the bottom

0:25:11.240 --> 0:25:16.760
<v Speaker 1>of the lake close to the F eighty nine, a strange, metallic,

0:25:17.040 --> 0:25:24.080
<v Speaker 1>tear dropped shaped object of unidentifiable origin. Jimenez suggested this

0:25:24.200 --> 0:25:28.600
<v Speaker 1>could well be the object that downed Felix Montler's plane.

0:25:30.400 --> 0:25:34.480
<v Speaker 1>A short time later, apparent sonar images of this object

0:25:34.720 --> 0:25:40.240
<v Speaker 1>were also posted on the Great Lakes Dive Company website.

0:25:40.359 --> 0:25:44.359
<v Speaker 1>As the UFO community became increasingly excited by the news,

0:25:44.840 --> 0:25:50.400
<v Speaker 1>efforts were made to verify the Great Lakes Dive Company's credentials. However,

0:25:50.680 --> 0:25:54.159
<v Speaker 1>no further evidence beyond the website could be found for

0:25:54.240 --> 0:25:59.200
<v Speaker 1>their existence. The so called Adam Jimenez proved equally difficult

0:25:59.280 --> 0:26:02.679
<v Speaker 1>to pin down, with only the email address and a

0:26:02.680 --> 0:26:06.639
<v Speaker 1>phone number provided on the website proving that he existed.

0:26:06.720 --> 0:26:12.560
<v Speaker 1>Two three weeks after Francis Ridge received his mysterious email,

0:26:13.000 --> 0:26:17.600
<v Speaker 1>the Great Lakes Dive Company website was taken offline and

0:26:17.640 --> 0:26:23.919
<v Speaker 1>the mysterious Adam Jimenez stopped replying to inquiries. It was

0:26:24.040 --> 0:26:30.720
<v Speaker 1>sadly just a hoax. To this day, no trace of

0:26:30.800 --> 0:26:35.639
<v Speaker 1>Felix Monkler or Robert Wilson has ever been found. No

0:26:35.880 --> 0:26:39.680
<v Speaker 1>convincing explanation has ever emerged to fill in all of

0:26:39.720 --> 0:26:43.919
<v Speaker 1>the bizarre gaps in the official narrative. No official version

0:26:43.920 --> 0:26:47.480
<v Speaker 1>of events seems to account for the aircraft banishing at

0:26:47.480 --> 0:26:51.480
<v Speaker 1>the precise moment it intersected with the UFO, Nor do

0:26:51.600 --> 0:26:56.200
<v Speaker 1>they explain the mysterious five seconds snatch of Felix's voice

0:26:56.560 --> 0:27:00.120
<v Speaker 1>supposedly heard more than an hour after the supposed crash

0:27:00.320 --> 0:27:04.440
<v Speaker 1>by the crew of the second Scorpion sent to find them.

0:27:04.680 --> 0:27:09.880
<v Speaker 1>To quote Donald Keyho, a Marine Corps aviator turned UFO researcher,

0:27:10.720 --> 0:27:14.480
<v Speaker 1>the Kinross incident, as it became known, remains one of

0:27:14.520 --> 0:27:27.199
<v Speaker 1>the strangest cases on record anywhere in the world. This

0:27:27.359 --> 0:27:30.800
<v Speaker 1>episode was written by Emma Dibden and produced by Richard

0:27:30.880 --> 0:27:35.520
<v Speaker 1>McLain Smith. Thank you as ever for listening Unexplained as

0:27:35.520 --> 0:27:39.479
<v Speaker 1>an Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard McLain Smith.

0:27:40.000 --> 0:27:43.240
<v Speaker 1>All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are

0:27:43.280 --> 0:27:47.679
<v Speaker 1>also produced by me Richard McLain Smith. Unexplained. The book

0:27:47.720 --> 0:27:51.639
<v Speaker 1>and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. You can

0:27:51.680 --> 0:27:56.200
<v Speaker 1>purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones and other bookstores.

0:27:56.720 --> 0:27:59.440
<v Speaker 1>Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get

0:27:59.480 --> 0:28:02.280
<v Speaker 1>your podcast, and feel free to get in touch with

0:28:02.320 --> 0:28:05.359
<v Speaker 1>any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on

0:28:05.440 --> 0:28:08.560
<v Speaker 1>the show. Perhaps you have an explanation or a story

0:28:08.560 --> 0:28:11.000
<v Speaker 1>of your own you'd like to share. You can find

0:28:11.040 --> 0:28:14.720
<v Speaker 1>out more at Unexplained Podcast dot com and reaches online

0:28:14.760 --> 0:28:18.840
<v Speaker 1>through X and Blue Sky at Unexplained Pod and Facebook

0:28:19.040 --> 0:29:06.120
<v Speaker 1>at Facebook dot com. Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast m DU