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What did happen to Sting 27? Considerable official silence still surrounds this incident. It was some 45 years ago when it vanished suddenly southeast of Homestead AFB, Florida. Sting 27 was the tactical name of a fast Phantom II F-4E jet of the 307th Tactical Fighter Squadron. It carried pilot, Lt. Norm Northrup and pilot Capt. John Romero. (See his biography)
Norm Northrup and John Romero were briefed on the weather that morning. It called for: “12,000 feet broken, an overcast at 25,000 and at least 7 miles visibility.” The temperature was a warm 77 degrees; winds at 2 knots.
For a jet capable of mach speeds, the flight was to be very short. Because of this Sting 27’s flight can be tracked by the minute.
They took off at 8:05 a.m. September 10, 1971. They headed 20 miles south of Miami where they were told to change frequency to pick up “Blissful Control” of the 726th Tactical Control Squadron “ . . .for a radar flight following during the maneuvering portion of the mission.”
At 8:07 a.m. this contact was made. This placed the Phantom at 25 miles south of Homestead AFB. One minute later Sting 27 started its supersonic run. Northrup headed southeast zigzagging 30 degrees left to right and then followed a straighter line toward the end of his route. He then reduced to subsonic speed.
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At 8:15 a.m. Sting 27 was 70 miles from Homestead. During a right turn, Northrup responded to a clearance request for 17,000 feet. The mission was already almost over. This course was maintained except for some “nondescript, maneuvering turns.”
The Coast Guard cutter Steadfast was on patrol in the area and heard 2 sonic booms as somewhere in the sky Sting 27 exceeded mach 1 on its return route.
It was 8:16 a.m. Another Phantom in the area, “Sting 26,” piloted by Lt. Axel Reardon* contacted Sting 27, wishing to coordinate their positions to maintain the proper distance for their maneuvers. Northrup reported himself at 14,000 feet.
One minute later Romero requested a voice check.
“How are we coming over?”
“Loud and clear,” responded Reardon.
Blissful Control did not hear the conversation between the planes, but did notice Sting 27’s Selective Identification Feature get weaker.
“Sting 27 your SIF feature is fading. We’re having trouble identifying you. Is that you at the boundary of Alpha six?”
“Roger, I am in a port turn at this time,” Northrup responded.
Radar confirmed it. Sting 27 turned left to a northerly heading, then right again as it executed its flight pattern. “During the right turn, radar contact was lost at 8:22 a.m. . . .” The position was 82 nautical miles southeast of Homestead AFB.
Several stations and flight facilities could no longer raise the flight, like Homestead AFB tower; Miami Center, FAA Reader Facility; Scepter Control, ADC Radar Facility; and Image Control.
Sting 28 was ordered to contact the flight. “Sting 27, Sting 27, this is Sting 28, do you copy?” Silence. “Come in two seven. Over,” signaled Lt. Shelby Kline.* Several reiterations went unanswered.
At this same time a lead was being followed. Homestead and several airplanes picked up an automatic alarm. The beacon, however, was quickly traced to routine maintenance checks at Homestead AFB.
Blissful was quickly vectoring Sting 28 to the last position of Sting 27. In five minutes Kline was over the spot, and began an “S” pattern search of the area at 5,000 feet.
There is one mystery attending this search which links Sting 27 to some of the most disquieting theories about the Bermuda Triangle. A few minutes later Sting 29 and Sting 30 entered the area. Sting 29 dropped down to 1,500 feet to get a closer look at an “area of disturbance” in the ocean and then reported something bizarre.
Captain Frank Bruberry and Lt. Adam Shapiro* banked their F-4 and looked down. Bruberry engaged his mike: “Yeah, the water is discolored. It’s an area of water discoloration. It is oblong in shape, with its axis running north/south. It’s approximately 100 by 200 feet.”
“That’s Roger,” confirmed Capt. Van Dyken* in Sting 30. Circling at a much higher altitude, he added:
“The southern tip appears to be below the surface. The northern end appears to be above. It’s oblong in shape, running north/south.”
As Van Dyken pulled out, he noticed the Steadfast at 5 miles south. “We have a spot up here. It’s 5 miles north. Maintain heading. You can’t miss it. Is that roger?”
Chugging along at full speed, Steadfast signaled affirmative.
Van Dyken roared over and headed to base due to low fuel.
This oblong shape, whatever it was, had disappeared by the time Steadfast got there minutes later, and proved illusive throughout the entire search.
This search expanded to take in the entire area of the Gulf Stream as far as Grand Bahama Island, taking into consideration its drift. By the end of the 13th the final tabulation showed that 59,030 square miles had been searched without a clue having been found.
Unsatisfied with these results, the Navy probed the suspected area of ocean with sonar from the 20th of September to the 23rd. After crisscrossing a 5 square mile track deemed the most probable, the results were a “flat negative” and search operations were finally halted.
Quite frankly, there is no way to figure out what happened to Sting 27. The Air Force does not and will not release conclusion or investigative material, not even opinions. They release the Summary findings, History of Flight and other relevant, though less classified, data on the airplane and pilots/crew. In this incident even the standard questionnaire, with its many boxes (where the clerk types in routine stuff like names, location) the box marked Type of Accident has the answer cut out. Usually the answer is Missing/Unknown and therefore does not require censoring. The paragraph after Sting 27’s disappearance from radar is described is even hacked out, as it must have elucidated on what else might have happened.
However, the back of the report holds a map, unedited. It is a chart of Sting 27’s track line. Several boxes mark key points in its flight path. One interesting box reads “suspected point of impact” before radar contact is even lost. Impact with what?
Since the Air Force even edited their standard file sheet, there is absolutely no way to even approach an official opinion on this incident.
Before one is tempted to apply the most sensational cause, one must bear in mind that there would be debris from a conventional collision. The lack of debris is just another example of how Bermuda Triangle mysteries differ from other accidents in the world. There is simply nothing left to postulate, not even a good guess.
There it might be said is the most somber fact. To leave no SOS can be brushed aside with “It was just too sudden.” No ELT or automatic alarm– “It was just too destructive.” But what is so destructive and so sudden as to eliminate debris?
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