OK, so my daughter was watching a very educational TV show on the Bermuda Triangle.
One of the cases it covered was the famous incident of Bruce Gernon, who claims he flew a Beech Bonanza from Andros Airport, Bahamas, to Palm Beach, Florida - 250 miles - in 47 minutes.
A Bonanza is not capable of speeds much over 200 mph in level flight on a still day, and is not made to withstand the stress of >300 miles an hour, which is what his airplane would have to have *averaged *if he’s telling the truth.
He claims it’s because of something called ‘electronic fog.’ (Sure. Whatever.)
My question is - have the facts of the case been debunked, or are they real? Did he have a flight plan, and are there airport records of when he left the Bahamas and landed at Palm Beach? Has anybody even tried to verify the verifiable/falsifiable parts?
Is it possible that he got into a very fast wind tunnel cause by a storm, that didn’t rip his plane apart, because the air around him was traveling as fast as he was? Could he be telling the truth (as he experienced it - seeing a vortex or tunnel of electric gray quality), without invoking pseudo-science?
A search of the internet tubes show many articles all citing Bruce Gernon. Nothing indicated an attempt to debunk, other than people pointing out the lack of evidence or scientific explanation for the incident. If there is any evidence that the event actually occured, Bruce Gernon has not offered it. All of the sources which refer to the incident offer nothing but his anecdote.
It is possible that the event did occur. The Bonanza would be unable to withstand the stress of >300mph AIRSPEED, which is the speed of the aircraft relative to the atmosphere, not the earth. If his plane had entered a fast moving air mass, hus speed relative to the earth could have exceeded 300mph, while his airspeed was much lower.
The main reason not to believe the story is the lack of evidence presented, and the lack of credibility in the sources that repeat the story.
In addition, this is at least the story behind the discovery of jetstreams. As I heard it, in the early days of radar, a plane was noticed traveling much faster than thought possible. However, that plane would have a higher Vne and would have been traveling at higher altitude. I suppose it could happen to a Bonanza under unusual circumstances.
Bewildebeest, I recall that Gernon coined the term electronic fog to refer to his instruments acting strangely. IIRC this incident happened around 40 years ago, and I’m not sure what kind of instrumentation he would have had, what he claims to observed, or what reason he would have had for using that term, unless it was to enhance the mysterious quality of his story.
If you read his account, it sounds like he had a bad trip. As in, he was ridiculously high. Not only that, but he claims to have seen numerous UFO’s over the years. Case closed right there, as far as I’m concerned.
It depends on what question you’re trying to answer, IMO.
Does ‘electronic fog’ explain how a Beech Bonanza went faster than it supposedly should be able to? Well, I had that question answered for myself before I started this thread.
Did his plane actually travel from the Bahamas to Palm Beach in 47 minutes?
If so, could a jet stream, or some other similar freaky movement of air due to the big thunderhead system that day, explain it?
Those questions, I think, are not answered by his reputation as a UFO sighter.
Exactly. If you read his account, he headed northwest, turned south, then headed west (but reported heading east), and presto, he’s over the mainland. In no way does a 100-kt tailwind account for what he claims happened. Not to mention the nature of the story–the fog, the crazy-quick lenticular cloud that turns into a doughnut-shaped squall line, the crazy-quick closing sucker hole through the cloud with perfectly round walls… everything screams hallucination or made-up (but in a naive, stoner way–I mean, a perfectly round hole in the cloud? If you’re going to fabricate a story, at least make it plausible). Why even go through the trouble of trying to debunk it?
The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we CAN imagine and the only way to discover the limits of the possible, is to go beyond them into the impossible.
Well, if this really is Mr. Gernon, you’ve convinced me! An insightful, objective, and convincing counterargument. Do you have a tinfoil hat you can spare?
It totally sounds like a suction propulsion through a horizontal tornado, caused by emf pulses from fault lines and solar flares interdynamicizing with a wandering sonic cloud of drum circle beats emanating from San Francisco.
