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The Lost Scorpion Found:

1953 Kinross F-89 May Have Crashed
"Head-On" with UFO

Amazing new photos have been released by The Great Lakes Dive Company concerning their discovery of the famous Kinross F-89 Scorpion jet fighter that disappeared over Lake Superior on November 23, 1953. The plane had been ordered to investigate an unknown object that was being tracked on radar.

The photos released today show the object that lies on the bottom of the lake less than 215 feet from the plane's wreckage.

One of The Great Lakes Dive Company's engineers came up with an ingenious idea. He cannibalized a forward-looking fish finder and then fed the signal through the Sharc2 software and suddenly they had images of the object. The Sharc2 software was designed to be used with "state-of-the-art" wide trajectory side scan sonar. The fish finder on board was normally used to find shallow rocks and shoals.

Spokesman for the company, Adam Jimenez, stated, "We didn't notice the object at first when we discovered the plane, but when we did a detailed search surrounding the aircraft (trying to locate the missing wing), a portion of the side scan came back distorted in an area near the wreckage of the F-89. We focused on this area and tried to scan it with the Sharc2 but had no luck it was still distorted. One of our team recalled that F-89's were known to carry a nuclear weapon called a "Genie" rocket. Although this rocket was not deployed until later versions of the F-89, we didn't know if some sort of covert testing may have happened on earlier versions, and this could be what was causing our equipment issues. Returning with a Geiger counter a day later, we put the theory to the test and....no radiation levels were detected."

Initially, the object appeared to be large and almost tear-drop in shape. It was only 212.5 feet from the F89! Jimenez added, "But the scan showed something very interesting...a plow mark trailing behind the object (as if it had crashed). This plow mark caused us to focus our immediate attention on the object, we lowered our ROV (remotely operated vehicle) to it and confirmed that the mystery object was metallic, and also had a strike mark that matched the missing wing hole on the F-89c Scorpion. It is possible that the missing wing may be underneath the mystery object.

The section of the object that is visible above the sand is approximately 15 feet long by 8.4 feet wide and as previously mentioned has a tear-drop shape. But this may be just the tip of the iceberg with the majority of the craft hidden below tons of sand.

Except for the wreckage of the F-89 Scorpion and the unidentified object there is nothing else on the lake bottom for miles. Jimenez said, "Our conclusion is that it would be highly coincidental for this object containing a suspicious strike mark and plowed near the F-89 to not have anything to do with the crash."

We will have to wait until next year and the new dive season for more answers about this mysterious object and the fate of the crew of the F-89 Scorpion.