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Source: The Wisconsin State JournalAug.自存倉 14--This is a tale of two airplanes, one lost to tragedy, one still a mystery after nearly six decades. It will be 60 years in November.Both planes were operated by Truax Air Force Base airmen. The jets took off less than six hours apart on the same day, Nov. 23, 1953. One crashed, and the other, well, all these years later, nobody knows, not for certain.Maybe the pending anniversary will lead to someone finding some answers, though I wouldn't bet on it.The less ambiguous incident happened first. An F-89 Scorpion jet took off from Madison's Truax Field around 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 23, 1953. A pilot, First Lt. John Schmidt, and a radar operator, Capt. Glen Collins, were on board the flight, which would test the jet's newly installed engines.The test initially went well. The airmen sent back instrument readings to the tower, and were headed back to Truax when what is believed to have been a sudden mechanical failure caused the jet to crash into a marsh in the Arboretum. A fiery explosion resulted and both airmen died.The second episode, which happened less than six hours later, is less well known in Madison lore because while the airmen lived in Madison, and were stationed at Truax, they were temporarily assigned to the Kinross Air Force Base in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.A little after 6 p.m. on Nov. 23, 1953, radar at Kinross showed a large unidentified object in restricted air space over the Soo Locks near the U.S.-Canadian border.An F-89 Scorpion jet was dispatched from Kinross to track the radar blip over Lake Superior. Aboard were the pilot, First Lt. Felix "Gene" Moncla, and radar observer Second Lt. Robert Wilson.Exactly what happened after that has been the subject of much speculation and dispute. It has been reported that as they tracked the UFO, Moncla's last words from the cockpit were, "I'm going in for a closer look."Early reports stated that Kinross radar showed the two blips on screen -- the F-89 and the UFO -- mysteriously merging into one. A Capital Times story on Nov. 25 reflected this: "The Truax jet was followed on the radar screen at Kinross until its image merged with that of the plane it was checking -- and then it was lost."It appears that a short time later officials tried to debunk the report of the merged blips, saying instead that the F-89 simply disappeared from the screen. The first blip was said to be an off-course Canadian airliner (a statement immediately denied by Canadian authorities). In any case, the Kinross jet, and the two Truax airmen, were gone, presumed lost in Lake Superior. Except by some UFO enthusiasts, who speculated the jet had somehow been swallowed up by an alien craft.That's pretty much what I wrote when I first heard about the Kinross jet,迷你倉新蒲崗in the summer of 2006. It wasn't an anniversary, I was simply intrigued by this story of two Madison airmen, the rogue radar blip and the enduring mystery.A few days after I wrote that column, I heard from a Canadian named Gord Heath, a UFO researcher well-versed in the Kinross incident. He had seen my column and said there was "a huge development" in the case.That development turned out to be a recently launched website of a group calling itself the Great Lakes Dive Co. Text on the website explained that the group, formed out of "a yearning to explain some of the enduring mysteries of the Great Lakes," had discovered in 500 feet of water on the bottom of Lake Superior what they believed was the missing Kinross F-89. They also provided a few sonar photos.Heath was very excited. He had been in contact with the Great Lakes Dive Co., and was awaiting further developments.What developed was the probability it was a hoax. The dive company's website went dark, never to return. At the time I spoke with Dirk Vander Ploeg, publisher of UFO Digest, who somewhat wistfully said he hoped the find was legitimate."What's your gut feeling?" I asked. "Is it real?""I doubt it," he said.These years later, it seems nearly certain there was no miraculous find. There was, however, one further development.In my phone conversations and correspondence with Gord Heath, the Canadian, it became clear his interest in the Kinross case went beyond scientific curiosity or a desire to find extraterrestrial life. Indeed, Heath, who I found to be intelligent and articulate, believed that he somehow possessed memories that could only have belonged to Gene Moncla, the pilot of the Kinross F-89. Heath told me he had memories of Madison even before he first visited, to see where Moncla lived and worked.A Canadian filmmaker, David Cherniack, became interested enough in Heath and the Kinross episode to make a documentary titled "The Moncla Memories" that aired in 2007 on Canadian television. Cherniack shot footage of Heath in Madison for the film.Cherniack told me he liked how Heath himself realized his Moncla memories were strange, by any measure. "He has never been a true believer in his own recollections." A DNA test revealed Heath not to be related, genetically, to Gene Moncla.Six decades after the F-89 disappeared over Lake Superior, I recall two lines from Cherniack's film. "There are some mysteries out there we can't answer. They just have to stay a mystery."Contact Doug Moe at 608-252-6446 or dmoe@madison.com. His column appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wis.) 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