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- On 18 December, 1999, Bruce Cornet took Herm Fischer,
a colleague from California, on a tour of the Wallkill River Valley, where
he had conducted seven years of research on the Pine Bush Phenomenon.
Because the area had not experienced much Anomalistic Observational Phenomena
(AOP) activity during the past two years (based on rare sightings), he
had hopes but no emotionally-bound expectations that they would be lucky
enough to see an AOP, let alone be treated to a mind-bending performance.
After touring the valley, taking many pictures, and talking to residents,
Cornet and Fischer settled down for several hours of night watching from
the edge of a farm field near the old Jewish Cemetery on Rte 52. All they
saw were conventional aircraft. At about 8:40 disappointed they began
their trip back home. They drove to the town of Walden on Rte. 52, and
then took Rte 208 south to I-84, which crosses New York State from west
to east.
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- As they approached a traffic light just before the highway
interchange Cornet spotted a bright light off in the distance which seemed
to be pacing their car. Fischer was driving. Cornet had his camcorder
ready, because on several occasions in the past AOP had suddenly shown
up either just before or just after he got on the highway.
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- On one occasion back in June of 1995 Cornet and his wife
had given a tour to their friend Sharon, who came up from Maryland for
a visit. They had seen nothing that evening (similar to this evening),
and were all disappointed. As Cornet drove onto the entrance ramp to I-84
at the same interchange they joked about seeing an AOP as they were leaving.
But no sooner had they gotten on the highway traveling east when Cornet
spotted a bright set of headlights in his rear view mirror. The headlights
caught his attention because they were coming up fast - much too fast for
a vehicle and certainly much faster than the speed limit of 65 mph.
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- The lights were catching up to their van at the speed
of an aircraft (at possibly more than 200 mph)! Cornet yelled to his
two passengers to look behind them. They both screamed as the headlights
seemed to be on a collision course with the van and certain disaster.
But about 500 feet behind them the lights lifted up off the highway and
flew over the trees along side the highway, slowing rapidly to the speed
of their van. There were several additional lights behind the two headlights,
but no one in the van was composed enough to count them. Cornet yelled
for the women to get his camcorder and point it at the AOP, which his
wife did. But as soon as she turned it on, the AOP dropped down out of
sight into a clearing in the forest.
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- That is why Cornet had his camcorder ready and turned
on as they approached the highway interchange. Highway I-84 up ahead.
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- The time was now 9:00 pm. Cornet began videotaping a
light through the windshield of their Chevy Impala. The AOP seemed to
be pacing the car. That fact became clear as Fischer breaked and stopped
for a red light. The AOP slowed down and stopped also. The AOP was to
the left of and ahead of the car, and in view by both driver and passenger.
It was about a mile away when it stopped in midair. Cornet suggested
that when the traffic light turned green, he should pull over to the shoulder
of the road and stop, which Fischer did. The AOP moved forward with the
car, and then stopped again as the car stopped (see animation). A street
light, which was about a block away, was in the same direction as the
AOP, which stopped just to the left of that light. To the left of the
car is an industrial park containing various manufacturing plants, buildings,
and parking lots with many trees around each building/warehouse complex.
Stars will seem to do the same thing, which is why skeptics will make
light of someone saying that a light in the sky was pacing their car.
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- Cornet pointed the light out to Fischer as they stopped
on the shoulder of the road. As soon as Cornet pointed to the AOP, it
seemed to "turned around" or reverse direction and begin to
head back towards them, ruling out the star or Venus hypothesis.
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- After they stopped on the shoulder of the road, Cornet
zoomed in on the AOP as it made a rapid approach from the southeast.
The AOP descended rapidly as if simulating a conventional aircraft on
approach to an airport runway, but there is no airport in the area (see
map). To the north an old WWII landing field has long since been converted
to an 18 hole golf course. Large trees grow where the old runways use
to be. To their surprise the AOP descended below roof top level and
behind a cluster of buildings across the road.
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- Think about it: If you saw what might at first look like
a conventional aircraft descending, you would probably think that there
was an airport near by and it was making a landing approach, right? If
the lighting on the object resembled - even remotely - that of airplane
navigation lights, you might not think anything was amiss until it dropped
down behind and below the tops of buildings in an area you knew did not
have a place big enough or long enough to accommodate a conventional fixed-wing
aircraft.
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- Fischer's mind was blown away by what he saw, and at
first he desperately tried to fit what he saw into a conventional explanation.
He was urgently curious and thinking that if he didn't turn around then,
he'd subsequently be upset with himself later for not checking that aspect
out while it was convenient to do so. He drove back and we checked out
the area to make sure there wasn't a landing strip or place there where
a plane could land. Only when we could find nothing that matched his expectations
did he finally accept the fact that we had been had. The Pine Bush Phenomenon
had struck again!!!
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- For more and to see the four animated gifs and video
frames, go to http://members.xoom.com/_XMCM/cornetbr1/uturn.htm
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- Yours truly, Bruce Cornet, Ph.D. Geologist and Paleobotanist
bcornet@monmouth.com http://www.monmouth.com/~bcornet/
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- 27 Tower Hill Ave. Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-9244
It's Happening Again! by Bruce Cornet, Ph.D.
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