Loud booms heard over Tampa Bay

HOLIDAY — The calls started around 9:30 a.m., say 911 operators People from Holiday up to Spring Hill, at least 25 of them in Pasco County, began reporting an ominous boom, loud enough to rattle windows. A handful of people even called the fire department.

General speculation was that the noise came from some kind of military maneuver over the Gulf of Mexico. But officials at MacDill Air Force Base say it wasn't them.

Lt. Patrick Gargan, a spokesman for the 6th Air Mobility Wing at the base, said MacDill has had noise complaints but typically doesn't get calls about booms.

www.tampabay.com...

Here we go again! I was driving so I did not hear this one but my mother called me and said it was so loud that she thought either a car crashed into the house or a big sinkhole opened up underneath their home. Upon not seeing anything, she said it was as loud as when the space shuttle would fly directly over on its way back home on a cool night when it was the loudest.

This one was mainly felt in Pasco county which is just north of Tampa Bay, it was felt a little to the north and south of the county. I guess it could have been a meteor but not one person seen anything as of yet. So far its a mystery. We do have plenty of sinkholes as we sit on a big aquifer that the cities pump their fresh water from and Tampa gets all it was from the Pasco well fields.

I hope this is not a sign of a big cavein somewhere about to happen.

It was nothing like the massive sonic booms that rocked the area in 2011, that was felt from Sarasota to the panhandle. That could have only been a new high speed bomber or surveillance aircraft like the SR-71 Blackbird.

Something Russian could have also done it as well since it made a run over MacDill AFB and they blamed it on two F-18s, however two of them were spotted flying into MacDill to the south over Sarasota. They were going way to slow and the booms were way to large and felt north as the suspected plane went north. The F-18s never flew north of MacDill AFB in TampaBay so they would never be felt as loud in the Panhandle after they were felt here unless it flew over them as well.

The main question I had was, why were two Navy planes flying at the same time? Were they trying to catch something or just fly cover because they knew it was going to cause a big boom and they just conveniently showed the planes on video a few minutes later on the news after people called in freaking out.

Are there any big rock outcrops around there that could have cracked, sending a shockwave out in the area? Maybe something is settling under the rock and it fractured. I've heard the sound of a glacier cracking before it slid into the bay in Juneau years ago. A big crack similar to some thunders. I bet a rock bluff cracking could be even louder. Could also be a meteor.

I suppose the explanation will be in the paper down there later, don't forget to post it or we will all forget about this thread in a week.