Several points about this mystery re the Great Lakes Dive Company.
Frank Warren has been looking into the licensing aspect of their claims
with the Ontario government. He can speak to that is he is so inclined.
I don't wish to drag him into this.
I have been snooping around on this story myself. My bona fides in
this area. I was a sport diver for 35 years and a professional diver
off and on for about two. My most recent contact with the dive
community was regarding the recovery of "treasure" from a vessel in
Aspy Bay cape Breton while writing an article about same (still
ongoing). I also spent time with the Fleet Diving Unit for the Canadian
Navy while researching my book, Swissair Down [the crash of Swissair
Flight 111 off Nova scotia, 1998]. Because of the underwater aspect of
the Shag Harbour Incident myself and Chris Styles had considerable
contact with the military dive units and the side scan sonar technology
and magnetic detection devices as was the case in my other contacts in
those areas mentioned above.
To that end, these points.
There is a a Great Lakes Div[ing] Company, note the ing on Dive
which has no relation to the GLDC and knows nothing about the GLDC.
They are a salvage outfit.
I have to date contacted six diving concerns in Michigan to see if
they have ever heard or worked with GLDC and none of them have ever
heard of them. The commercial dive community is a close knit one and
usually they are aware of each other [they vigorously compete with one
another for contracts and wreck sites, etc.] and often use the some of
the same professional/sport divers so I find their lack of knowledge
about GLDC unusual.
I'm uncertain if the name of GLDC's diving vessel is mentioned but
if it is there would be a record of it somewhere. Again the others in
that community would have noted it's existence.
Jimenez claims that they were using a high quality side scan
product but when I checked with my sources, principally Deep Star
Exploration here in Nova Scotia, Terry Dwyer advised that that product
was of Canadian Tire [for you Americans, Target or WalMart] quality and
not for professional use. It is low end and not much good for the deep
scanning claimed by Jimenez.
GLDC claims to have used a ROV [remotely operated vehicle] which
are extremely expensive and are usually rented along with an
operator/owner and another area which could be explored for discerning
the veracity of the GLDC.
Touching briefly upon GLDC's claims of applying for licenses,
Jimenez mentions the wrong Federal Government Ministry and mixes the
Ontario Provincial Government up with the Federal responsibility. Frank
Warren, if he chooses, can speak to that.
It is strange that the head office [or at least the contact
number] for GLDC is located in California and not registered in some
area of the Great Lakes where they actually claim to do their work.
Once this story got legs and media attention it's possible that
the US military and/or the Canadian Military made inquiries as has the
Mining Journal and this spooked the principals of "GLDC".
If this turns out to be a bogus claim on their part it will be
unfortunate because the families of the missing crew of the F-89C are
on record of hoping for closure on this mystery.
Here's the latest on the mystery.
Fran
KINROSS Fifty-three years ago this month, a U.S. Air Force F-89
Scorpion jet vanished from radar screens over Lake Superior after being
sent to intercept an unknown aircraft.
On the evening of Nov. 23, 1953, Air Force radar tracked the
missing jet until it merged with an unidentified object 70 miles off
the Keweenaw Peninsula, at an altitude of 7,000 feet.
Newspaper reports said the missing plane, which had left the
Kinross Air Force Base at 5:22 p.m. was last heard from when it
radioed the base from somewhere out over the lake.
Pilot 1st Lt. Felix E. Moncla Jr., 27, of Mercauville, La. and
radar operator 2nd Lt. Robert Wilson, 22, of Ponca City, Okla. were
presumed dead, likely somewhere under the snow-swept waters of Lake
Superior.
The U.S. military said the object the plane chased was a Royal
Canadian Air Force Mohawk C-47 transport plane, but that claim was
later denied by the Canadian government, saying there were no such
aircraft in the area at the time.
Algoma Central Railway workers roughly 100 miles north of Sault
Ste. Marie said they heard a crash that occurred shortly contact with
the F-89 was lost by the military. But after a search, no sign of the
crew or fighter jet was discovered.
In autumn 1968, prospectors in the Cozens Cove area of Ontario
found mechanical parts north of Sault Ste. Marie, including a tail
stabilizer section, that military officials said were from a
high-performance jet aircraft.
A newspaper article from the time said the parts were thought to
have perhaps been from the missing Kinross plane, but that idea was
later discounted. The article doesnt say why.
Over the years, a great deal of speculation has surrounded the
Kinross Incident, with some UFO investigators suggesting the Scorpion
may have struck, or even been devoured by, a craft from another planet.
It is a compelling mystery with an interesting UFO twist, said
Gord Heath, a British Columbia resident interested in the Kinross
incident since 2000. Many people at radar tracking stations observed
the F-89s return merging with the blip from the other craft before it
disappeared. The possibility that a UFO swallowedthe F-89 makes this
an interesting puzzle.
Now, more than five decades after the crew disappeared without
sending a distress signal, the mystery of what happened to Moncla,
Wilson and the Scorpion jet has been given new life.
Reports from The Great Lake Dive Company a downstate venture
said to be made up of Michigan natives with a common interest in
shipwreck hunting and historical preservation say they used side-scan
sonar equipment to discover the missing plane, along with a piece of
the object it presumably collided with.
The jet is reportedly located in deep water, lying upright on
the lake bottom, mostly intact. The port wing and starboard tail
stabilizer are missing. Cockpit structure is said to be in place,
suggesting the pilots may still be inside.
Reportedly, the find was said to be made in an area off the
Keweenaw Peninsula in summer 2005, with the dive company waiting a year
before announcing its discovery.
Frankly we came away surprised, said Adam Jimenez, dive company
spokesman from Oakland County. We expected, at best, to locate an
engine, wing or other small debris. Finding the plane together was
really unexpected.
The company reportedly made a positive identification of the
F-89. The second object reportedly shows an impact trace that shows how
it landed and stopped a little more than 215 feet from the planes
wreckage.
Jimenez reportedly claimed the mystery object was confirmed to
be metallic with a mark from being struck that could match a wing from
the fighter jet. The missing wing from the planes wreckage may be
buried in lake sediments underneath the teardrop-shaped object.
In August, Jimenez contacted The Mining Journal with a news
release, saying the company was still in the process of documenting
the mystery object, with a lot of wreck site forensics to complete.
Reportedly, there is nothing else located on the bottom of the
lake for miles, leading dive company researchers to conclude the plane
and second object being found so close together means they must both be
related in the crash.
We feel bittersweet, Jimenez wrote. On one hand, we set out to
answer this thing and did. But on the other hand, you realize this was
a tragedy that claimed the lives of two American pilots.
Jimenez said a documentary on the history, search and discovery
of the F-89 and mystery object was being planned.
But like the F-89 Scorpion jet itself, Jimenez and the dive
company unexpectedly dropped off the radar screen.
Now researchers are wondering whether the reported find and
purported sonar images circulated were a hoax, or whether Jimenez and
his associates have simply sought a lower public profile with their
claims remaining valid.
While it may be too early to reach any definitive conclusions,
there certainly seems to be many more questions than answers concerning
Great Lakes Dive Company and the alleged F-89 discovery, said Dirk
Vander Ploeg, editor and publisher of UFODigest.com and PsiTalk.com in
an on-line commentary. About the middle of October, the Great Lakes
Dive Company Web site suddenly went blank. It was at this time that
Adam Jimenez stopped returning phone calls and e-mails.
Jimenez has not answered Mining Journal requests seeking
interviews for this story and Internet searches for the company have
failed to produce new contact information.
Heath, who has contacted several principals in the case and
maintains an extensive Web site on the Kinross case, said he believes
there are several intriguing possibilities concerning the whereabouts
of the missing F-89.
The best possibility towards solving the mystery will be to
find the aircraft, with or without the remains of the crew, Heath said.
I do think it is possible that the F-89 is either on the bottom of
Lake Superior or perhaps somewhere else in the region.
Are the remains of Wilson and Moncla with their plane on the
bottom of an inland lake or lost in a dense Canadian forest yet to be
discovered by a hunter or trapper? Was the wreckage actually recovered
by prospectors along Lake Superior in 1968?
Perhaps the missing Scorpion jet indeed sits upright off the tip
of the Keweenaw Peninsula in more than 250 feet of water in Canadian
jurisdiction? Or does the real answer to where the crew went lie