Sonic Boom?

[Scylla]

Everyone in south Cambridgeshire (UK) just heard a sonic boom, around 1030z. Anyone know what's up?

[Big Eric]

It's a pair of Typhoons on a QRA mission from Coningsby.

[Ambient Sheep]

Heard it here as far south as the Harlow/Hoddesdon area, at 11:35:15 BST give or take a couple of seconds. I can be so precise re. the time as, when it happened, I was typing online with a friend and my reaction was logged.

https://twitter.com/HertsFRSControl has this:

1 of 3 - 1140 - Fire Control have received several calls relating to loud explosions in the Epping, Hertford, Hoddesdon, Puckeridge,

2 of 3 - Stanstead Abbotts and Ware areas. This has been confirmed by National Air Traffic Control as a "sonic boom" caused by a jet

3 of 3 - breaking the sound barrier. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_boom (http://t.co/dIkVZdCq5u)which I guess tells us nothing more except that it's been officially recognised.

I thought it was something like Buncefield again when I heard it... didn't sound like booms I've heard before.


EDIT: Thanks Big Eric, crossed in the post there.

[Wageslave]

Lord! what kind of numptie calls the fire brigade (presumably on 999) to report they've heard a bang but don't know where it came from? What is the point in that? Do they imagine they're the only one, and no one closer to the "explosion" saw where it happened?

Just amazing!

[Dash8driver1312]

What kind of numpty tells themselves that someone else must be better positioned and DOESN'T report it?

[rogerhume]

If you had broken windows and a fallen tree maybe you would have telephoned to find out what was going on

[Phileas Fogg]

Not all "numpties" are spotters ... just some of them!

[Wycombe]

Not in the area myself, but asked family in Ashwell (N. Herts) and they described it as "like close thunder".

Busy times for the QRA's.

[AeroMad]

Didn't hear it South Herts :(

[Burnie5204]

Confirmed by MoD as being a QRA Typhoon from Conningsby dispatched Supersonic to intercept a jet near London inbound to Heathrow who had stopped communicating.

Tansor Tanker also lifted but not required.

[IcePack]

Did you hear the ?sonic boom? in Cambridgeshire today as jet from Lincs was scrambled to aid Heathrow bound plane? - News - Cambs Times (http://www.cambstimes.co.uk/news/did_you_hear_the_sonic_boom_in_cambridgeshire_today_as_jet_f rom_lincs_was_scrambled_to_aid_heathrow_bound_plane_1_223865 3)

Question do the pilots get sanctioned & do the airline have to pay the costs?

[rogerg]

The RAF is probably grateful for the practise!!

[grounded27]

I can not provide a reference but I thought there was a sonic ban over populated areas, in the US at least. Doubt this crap was necessary.

[wiggy]

I rather suspect in certain circumstances certain people in authority can tell the folks in QRA not to spare the horses and get moving, regardless of any so called "sonic bans" :mad:....


Doubt this crap was necessary.

Perhaps, perhaps not, I doubt we will ever know - can't say I'm going to lose sleep over it.

[BOAC]

How does it go?
"Military jet noise - the sound of freedom"

[wiggy]

"Military jet noise - the sound of freedom"

That's the one... :ok:

The thunderstorm that hit us last night made more of a racket then the (legitmate) sonic booms that l’armée de l'air occasionally lay down on us in this neck of the woods. Given some of the previous comments are the RAF's and/or the Typhoon's sonic booms particularly annoying or is being "boomphobic" a particularly British thing?

[TEEEJ]

Grounded27 wrote,

I can not provide a reference but I thought there was a sonic ban over populated areas, in the US at least.

In an emergency situation going supersonic is an option. Lt. Col. Dan Nash and Col. Tim Duffy went supersonic on 9/11.


DUFF: We’re going down there. We’re accelerating to (Mach) 1.3, 1.4, so we’re doing a mile every three, four seconds. We’re kind of hauling the mail getting down there. And actually Nasty even called me up at one point and said, “Duff, you going supersonic?” And I said, “Yeah, OK.” We’re not supposed to do that, but this time I figured we were high enough, we weren’t going to blow out any windows or do any damage so, we kept the Mach up trying to get there as quick as we could.

9/11 Stories: The Fighter Pilots Who Got The Call | WBUR (http://www.wbur.org/2011/09/07/fighter-pilots)

2010

In August, while President Barack Obama was in Seattle, a small aircraft inadvertently entered a restricted airspace, coming within eight miles of the president’s airplane. Two F-15s from the 142nd Fighter Wing in Portland, Ore., scrambled to intercept the aircraft. While en route, the jets broke the sound barrier, producing two sonic booms over Seattle.

CONR wins NORAD-level award (http://www.northcom.mil/News/2011/042811.html)


2011

Ohio based F-16s went supersonic and crossed into Canada during an interception.

Two F-16 fighters scrambled by NORAD created Tuesday's sonic boom as they sped to intercept a corporate jet that had been out of communication for about an hour. "Two fighters were scrambled yesterday afternoon around the same time frame of the phone calls about the sonic boom and they did go supersonic," Maj. Gary Bentley, executive officer for the 180th Fighter Wing, Ohio National Guard, said Wednesday. The F-16 jets were ordered up by NORAD and flew out of the 180th Fighter Wing unit in Toledo, Ohio.

They broke the sound barrier at Mach 1 on their way to intercept the corporate jet near Windsor.

NORAD jets behind sonic boom surprise (http://www2.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=7b8bd1c7-b4a5-42d6-8125-781d74bb54fc)