Aircraft Parts Found in 1968
Alona Bay, East Shore of Lake Superior
Looking towards Point Aux Mines - This is the area where fighter jet aircraft parts were found by two prospectors in late October, 1968As 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?"
The 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.
Newspaper Articles:
