Sonic Boom Over York UK at 10pm 2/5/2016

originally posted by: Mianeye
a reply to: templar knight

I believe it's not allowed for aircraft to break the sound barrier over land as it can cause damage to buildings.

Well that is news to me. I hear sonic booms about once every few months. Then again I live between an army and air force base.

a reply to: defiythelie

They have areas set up where they can go as fast or as low as they want. Outside those areas, or alert fighters, they have to be 250 miles offshore to go supersonic.

That was very loud.

After explaining to my (always skeptical ) wife that it was a sonic boom, I went into the street to calm the neighbors- one of whom was busy doing door to door enquiries in his undies.

Once people were calmed and persuaded not to waste time by calling the police I returned to my house to have an artists rendering of the Aurora thrust in my face from the wifes phone as she cocked her head and asked me quizzically if it was "pulse detonation engines".


Funny to see how people reacted....anything really strange in the sky might melt society.

It was an aircraft that failed to make contact with ATC.

Yorkshire Houses Shaken By Sonic Booms - Residents say their houses shook as RAF jets flew towards a civilian plane that was not communicating with air traffic control.

Two Typhoon jets were scrambled to intercept a civilian aircraft on Monday night, creating sonic booms which shook houses in Yorkshire.

The planes, based at RAF Coningsby, had been sent to identify the aircraft, which had not responded to air traffic control.

Residents of Yorkshire reported two loud bangs at 9.50pm, with one person on Twitter describing the scene: "(the) house shook and whole street was out, car and house alarms gone off".

The bangs were later confirmed to have been sonic booms.

An RAF spokesman said: "Quick reaction alert Typhoon aircraft were launched today from RAF Coningsby to identify an unresponsive civilian aircraft.

"Communications were re-established and the aircraft has been safely landed."

North Yorkshire Police tweeted: "Confirmation from RAF that loud bangs heard across the county were sonic booms from RAF Typhoon jets. No cause for concern."

click link for rest of article.

I would rather deal with broken windows and car alarms than an aircraft impacting a target.

As others have noted, the source is well known (as is the reasons for it). Good to see the reaction times really!

Just thought i would add that as a dedicated ATS'er i was outside having a sneaky smoke at the time (York - outskirts but still York proper) and.............i didn't hear a blooming thing!