Felix Moncla

First Lieutenant Felix Eugene Moncla Jr. (October 21, 1926 – presumed dead November 23, 1953) was a United States Air Force (USAF) pilot who disappeared while performing an air defense intercept over Lake Superior in 1953. His disappearance is sometimes known as the Kinross Incident, after Kinross Air Force Base, where Moncla was on temporary assignment at the time he vanished.

The USAF reported that Moncla had crashed into Lake Superior while tracking a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) C-47 aircraft which was off course. According to the report, the pilot of the Canadian aircraft did not know that he was the subject of an interception.

Disappearance

On the evening of November 23, 1953, Air Defense Command Ground Intercept radar operators at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, identified an unusual target over Lake Superior, near the Soo Locks. An F-89C Scorpion jet from Kinross Air Force Base was scrambled to investigate the radar return; the Scorpion was piloted by First Lieutenant Moncla, with Second Lieutenant Robert L. Wilson acting as the Scorpion's radar operator.

Wilson had a difficult time tracking the object on the Scorpion's radar, so ground radar operators gave Moncla directions towards the object as he flew. Moncla eventually closed in on the object at about 8,000 feet in altitude. Ground Control tracked the Scorpion and the unidentified object as two "blips" on the radar screen. The two blips on the radar screen grew closer and closer until they seemed to merge. Assuming that Moncla had flown either under or over the target, Ground Control anticipated that moments later, the Scorpion and the object would again appear as two separate blips. There was a fear that the two objects had struck one another, but the single blip continued on its previous course.

Attempts were made to contact Moncla via radio, but without success. A search and rescue operation by both the USAF and the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) was quickly mounted, but failed to find any trace of the plane or its pilots. Weather conditions were a factor in hampering the search.