Florida Earthquake Sonic Boom Coverup

MacDill Airforce Base described to reporters the "2.7 earthquake" on Friday afternoon heard by both central and western Floridians was "2 F-18 jets landing at the air force base". The wide area of coverage and duration as well as reported location of the event is met with great skepticism. MacDill AFB is the center for Middle East operations and the epicenter of the "earthquake".



Location descrepancies:
earthquake.usgs.gov...
The epicenter is registered with USGS as right over MacDill Air Force Base (right in the top of the Tampa Bay) yet the news reported the exact location as over the Gulf of Mexico. Now they have removed the data from the USGS site depicting that earthquake epicenter.

The flight path was reported to be from Pensacola to Tampa, a path that would naturally fall over the Gulf of Mexico.

www.sptimes.com...
"What Remi and thousands of other residents from Citrus to Manatee counties heard and felt was two F-18 jets breaking the sound barrier. The resulting booms resonated from Citrus to Manatee counties."

While Citrus county is north of Tampa (Hillsborough County), Manatee county is south. Plausible areas in line with the described flight path.

Orlando however is not in that path:
www.bradenton.com...
"The shaking registered on the U.S. Geological Survey seismograph in Orlando, measuring 2.7 on the Richter Scale, the equivalent of a very weak earthquake. Central Florida is not an active earthquake area, said USGS duty officer Madeleine Zirbes. "They did see it register," Zirbes said from Denver, Colo. "They thought immediately that it could be a sonic boom."

Area activity and similar historical events:
www.bradenton.com...
"On June 16, 2003, Manatee County experienced a similar boom. The military disavowed any knowledge of aircraft in the area and that boom remains a mystery.
...
Earlier Friday evening, a security worker at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport acknowledged that at least one Navy cargo plane performed maneuvers in the area and landed at the airport. More details were not available Friday night."

The unusual duration of the sonic boom:
"Remi has heard the double boom that comes when space shuttles re-enter the atmosphere. On Friday, he said it sounded more like five or six booms in a row.

"I never heard so many booms come as rapidly as that," he said.
"

The personal experience of the author of this article, located in Clearwater, Florida (Pinellas County), was that the event shook and resonated all windows in his house for approximately a 10 second period (6 booms sounds a similar account). The event was highly unusual and earthquake seemed implausible yet the best description of the event. Sonic boom was considered but the duration specifically made justification of a sonic boom difficult to believe.

MacDill AFB as the center of operations in the Middle East and the 2.7 registration of the event in Orlando (east of MacDill by 70+ miles) makes the scenario of supersonic flight by something classified more likely. The only reported military aircraft was a cargo plane at that time. As those who follow program data such as X43 and Aurora know, supersonic aircraft can and are deployed by cargo planes.

Related News Links:
www.bradenton.com
www.sptimes.com

[edit on 13-3-2005 by Banshee]

I Live in Lutz, a town north of Tampa. I was in my vehicle during this
incident. I observed an unknown type of aircraft flying at low levels
over my subdivision.The craft was flying at very low speeds also
between 60mph to 75mph. I am a retired police officer and I have been
trained how mesure and guess ground speeds, so I know I am in the ball
park for the true speed. The craft was at about 500 feet above the
ground. What made me look at this craft was the lights, at the ends of
the craft, the lights were pointed up like lanterns and were visable
from 360 degrees, these were not landing lights. Also there were
anywhere from 4 to 10 lights in the body of the craft that changed in
color, intesity, and location. I heard no noise as the craft approached
but as the craft was close/almost overhead, it sounded like an
avalanche, not like jet engines, or a rotary aircraft. The aircraft
came from the East and moved northeast and the turned and moved
south/southwest along us Highway 41. as the craft traveled south, two
aircraft came from the west and turned south and followed the
unidentified craft. My wife was at home and under the flight path of
the craft and as it passed it shook our entire house for 30 to 45
seconds. Shortly after the incident, 15 minutes after, the news
stations had already recieved a press release about 2 F18's, that is
fast for an Airforce press release. After 15 years Military and civillian law enforcement i have never seen or felt anything like this. And this is not the first time that this happened in our area. My Neighbor saw the craft as it flew over and orbited a lake behind his house. He said it kinda looked like a plane a really big one flying really low and slow. He said all of the interior cabin lights were on. It scared him so badly he had his family lock themselves in a closet while he got a gun. The following Friday at about 2155hrs i heard thuds/ booms coming from the south like artillery or fireworks, as i came outside i saw the same craft flying south. as the craft flew farther away the booming lessened and disappeared.

if anyone has any info email me at [email protected]

Jason

This is plausible at least. We used to anchor and fish the flats south of the runway at MacDill (a great place is right alongside the ILS approach lights that jut out into the water). Planes would always approach from what I would say is about SE so a downwind and then base leg would have them coming in from the gulf before turning onto final.

Off topic, but the next time the Blue Angels are in town, anchor in this spot for a phenomenal view (and feeling) of their full-afterburner takeoff.

St. Pete here, just south of Clearwater...didn't hear anything, but know many who did...