Lt. Mingenbach's Statement
It was through the efforts of Michigan UFO investigator, John Tenney that most of the missing documents from the Official USAF Kinross Accident Investigation Report were finally obtained. Probably the most interesting new information to be revealed in the previously classified documents was contained in the statement and testimony of Lt. Bill Mingenbach.
On the night of the F-89 disappearance, Lt. Mingenbach was the pilot for the second crew which was on five minute alert status at Kinross when the scramble horn blasted. I talked by phone to Lt. Mingenbach, and he revealed that at the time of the horn, the two standby crews on fifteen minute alert status had just returned from dinner and they were actually about to relieve the two crews on five minute alert.
I had also talked with Lt. Moncla's widow when I was visiting Louisiana in the fall of 2002. She told me that the crews had been playing cards before the alert horn sounded. By her account, just before Lt. Moncla left the ready room to respond to the alert, he placed his wallet on the table.
After Moncla and Wilson took off, Mingenbach and his radar observer left the alert hangers for dinner. When he returned from dinner at 7:00 PM EST Lt. Mingenbach called Naples (GCI radar station at Sault Ste. Marie) requesting a C.A.P. (Civil Aviation Patrol) mission. The mission was immediately approved and Lt. Mingenbach and his radar operator were airborne at 7:15 PM EST. After he was airborne, Naples assigned a route vector out over Lake Superior and Mingenbach was informed that contact had been lost with Moncla and Wilson. For the remainder of their mission, Mingenbach's radar observer made continuous attempts to contact Moncla and Wilson by radio on all channels. At about 7:35 PM EST, Mingenbach and his radar observer heard a brief radio transmission on channel 10. Both crew members believed the voice in the transmission was that of Lt. Moncla, who they recognized by his pronounced slow southern drawl. The transmission was only a few seconds duration and sounded like an accidental transmission of perhaps something he was saying to his radar observer. In his oral testimony to the investigation board, Mingenbach stated his recall was the message was "I think we better" followed by several other words he could not recall. They tried to contact the originating voice several times on the channel but received no response.
It is very strange for the pilots to receive an unidentified transmission on a military frequency with no response. It is stranger still to consider the fact that both crew members identified the voice as that of Lt. Moncla who they both recognized by his accent and delivery. This is especially mysterious when one considers that the transmission was at least half an hour after radar and radio contact had been lost with the F-89. It must be remembered that indications are that several radar stations had been observing the F-89 intercept and so it is very hard to attribute this lost signal to anything other than the crash or disappearance of the F-89. The loss of radar contact with the F-89 implies one of perhaps two possibilities:
The simultanteous loss of the IFF signal and radar return from the F-89 indicates it had crashed into the lake. There had previously been some radio communications problems with the F-89 during the flight and perhaps the communications had failed again, preventing the transmission of a distress before the F-89 crashed. If the radio message was from Lt. Moncla, the pilot could not have been transmitting from a crashed plane in the lake and if he were, it would most certainly have been with greater urgency, perhaps something like "MAYDAY – Avenger Red is down." A second possibility might be that the message was previously recorded and replayed.
The F-89 had not crashed but was instead captured by the craft it had been sent to intercept and had been observed to merge with on radar. This theory is based on a theoretical framework that allows for the possibility that some UFOs are perhaps as they sometimes appear to be – advanced craft of possible extraterrestrial origin. Some UFOs are described as enormous "motherships" which can deploy other smaller "scout disks" from on board landing bays or hangers. Theoretically it might be possible for the ETs piloting these craft to gain control of the F-89's control system or to use other technology to draw the craft into an open bay, normally used for one of the scout craft. This theory allows for the possibility that Moncla and Wilson were captured and still alive within the alien mothership. The radio transmission was perhaps not made realtime but was previously recorded during the final moments of the intercept when Lt. Moncla observed the alien mothership and was telling his radar observer "I think we better start heading back" – followed a few seconds later by "my control stick isn't working, try yours". The cockpit transmission was recorded by the aliens and rebroadcast later for a purpose. Perhaps as a warning to the USAF to cease in some of the more aggressive pursuits which at times allegedly involved the deployment of weapons systems against the flying saucers.
In presenting these two scenarios, I am not discounting any other possible theory, but I do think these contrast the two scenarios I propose as being of greatest possible significance.
The following links present the information contained in the USAF Official Accident Report that pertains to this discussion:
