Kinross UFO Incident — The 2006 Great Lakes Dive Company Hoax

From KB42

Kinross UFO Incident — The 2006 Great Lakes Dive Company Hoax

Overview

In late August and September 2006 — fifty-three years after the Kinross incident — the UFO research community was briefly electrified by the claim that a Michigan dive salvage company had discovered the wreckage of Moncla's F-89 on the bottom of Lake Superior. The claim turned out to be an elaborate hoax, thoroughly investigated and debunked. It remains the most significant false development in the case's post-1953 history.

The Initial Claim

An email from Preston Miller*** was sent to UFO researcher Francis Ridge*** at NICAP, containing clippings from an Associated Press article and a link to a newly established website. The email claimed that a group of divers calling themselves the Great Lakes Dive Company had discovered:

  • The mostly intact wreckage of an F-89 fighter jet on the bottom of Lake Superior
  • In the area where radar contact was lost with Avenger Red in November 1953
  • At a depth of approximately 150 meters
  • Reportedly discovered in summer 2005 using wide-trajectory side-scan sonar

The news spread rapidly through UFO forums, websites, and radio programs. The organization UFO Updates***, UFO Digest***, and Linda Moulton Howe's earthfiles.com*** all carried the story. The Great Lakes Dive Company website (now defunct) featured discussion forums and what were described as sonar images of the alleged wreckage.

The Escalating Claims

As interest grew, the company's spokesperson — identified only as Adam Jimenez*** — made increasingly extraordinary claims:

  • A metallic disc-shaped object*** was located a short distance from the F-89 wreckage
  • The disc could not be imaged with the company's side-scan sonar because it was emitting radiation*** that interfered with the equipment
  • The company had improvised a solution by attaching a fish finder*** — a consumer-grade depth finder — to a rope and lowering it to depth (claimed to be approximately 1,000 feet) to capture images of the disc
  • The Canadian government had quarantined the dive site*** and was denying the company access

The Investigation and Unraveling

James Carrion***, then Director of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), conducted a detailed investigation of the claims. His findings:

  • No company named Great Lakes Dive Company*** was registered in Michigan or any adjacent state
  • No one in the Great Lakes shipwreck salvage community had ever heard of the Great Lakes Dive Company or of Adam Jimenez
  • The sonar images presented were inconsistent with genuine side-scan sonar imagery (identified as a fake by dive technology expert Brendan Baillod, who noted the images were not produced by sonar)
  • Baillod confirmed the images were authentic photographs but denied they were taken using sonar; he also noted they could not have been taken with the converter Jimenez claimed to have installed
  • Canadian authorities confirmed the alleged site was never quarantined or off-limits
  • Jimenez could not provide basic details about his company's corporate structure or the vessel used for the dive operation
  • No shipping or marine operator records placed any company's vessel in the relevant area

The Collapse

Shortly after the investigation findings became public, the Great Lakes Dive Company website went completely offline without explanation. Adam Jimenez stopped answering his cell phone and emails. No further communication was ever received. The identity of "Adam Jimenez" — whether a real person or a pseudonym — was never established.

Significance

The 2006 hoax is significant for several reasons beyond its own falsity:

  • It demonstrates the intense public and research community desire for resolution of the Kinross mystery — a desire that made the initial claims more believable than their evidence warranted
  • It illustrates how sophisticated internet-era hoaxes can be in constructing institutional credibility (a website, a spokesman, claimed corporate structure)
  • Its specific inclusion of a "metallic disc" near the aircraft wreckage reveals an understanding of what would excite UFO researchers specifically — suggesting the perpetrator understood the audience they were targeting
  • Despite being thoroughly debunked, it continues to circulate in some UFO research literature, demonstrating how false claims about compelling cases can persist
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