[meteorite-list] Loud Booms Heard In Virginia

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Aug 10 11:34:31 2006
Message-ID: <200608101531.IAA14939_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=108904&ran=229580

Jets suspected in series of loud booms along Outer Banks
By CATHERINE KOZAK
The Virginian-Pilot
August 9, 2006

Buildings shook and windows rattled with a series of loud booms heard up
and down the northern beaches of the Outer Banks shortly before 11 a.m.
Tuesday.

They may have been caused by aircraft breaking the sound barrier.

"The only thing we can attribute it to is offshore jets," said Sandy
Sanderson, director of Dare County Emergency Management. "We called the
Air Force, the Navy and the Coast Guard and they couldn't run it down."

Sanderson said that there was a flurry of calls from the public wanting
to know what caused the concussive sounds that felt like an explosion
could have gone off somewhere nearby. He said that, considering the lack
of any other evidence, the most likely explanation was sonic booms
caused by supersonic speed from aircraft.

"I'm 99 percent sure that's what it was," he said.

A military operating area - commonly called an MOA - is located about 25
miles offshore, said Harry Mann, range supervisor at the Navy Dare
bombing range near Stumpy Point.

Jets from the Air Force and Navy conduct practice bombing runs at the
range, but Mann said that none of those aircraft could have been a source.

"I promise you, it was nothing we had," he said. "If it was a jet, it
had to be out over the ocean over the MOA. There was nothing from Nags
Head beach west that we were doing that would do anything like that."

Mann said he was unable to find out any information from the military on
Tuesday, but expects he will be able to learn today if a military jet
offshore could have caused the booms to be felt on the beach.

Sonic booms, waves of sound similar to thunder, are caused by aircraft
moving faster than sound, a speed of about 750 mph at sea level. When a
jet breaks the sound barrier, the pressure waves created by speeding
through the air combine into shock waves. On the ground, the "boom!"
results from the sudden release of pressure from the shock wave.

Pilots are not allowed to break the sound barrier over populated areas.

"This is the first time it's happened in I don't know how long," Mann said.

Sanderson said that there were no reports of any damage related to the
incident.
Received on Thu 10 Aug 2006 11:31:48 AM PDT