Sonic Boom (Maxwell F-16s supersonic over Columbus, GA)

[Robb]

Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina tells News Leader Nine the loud sound heard around our area around 1:15 eastern time Thursday was in fact a sonic boom.

People who heard the blast said it sounded like a huge explosion. Phone calls flooded our Columbus Newsroom from as far away as Opelika. Police Departments were also bombarded with calls from concerned people. Opelika Police Department and the Lee County Sheriff's office sent officers out to locate what at first was believed to be an explosion. No damage could be found. That led them to believe the sound came from an aircraft.

News Leader Nine spoke with Maxwell Air Force base. A spokesperson confirmed just before the boom was heard an F-16 took off from the base heading toward Hunter Army Air Field in Savannah, Georgia. The F-16 was based out of Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina. A spokesperson confirmed the F-16 landed in SavannahÊand caused the sonic boom.

(snip)

---------

DU pilots: aren't there pretty strict rules about going supersonic over population centers?

[EstimatedProphet]

1. I used to hear them a lot in Arlington VA

ESPECIALLY on 9/11, of course.
Weird. I was only 30 miles from Columbus and didn't hear a thing.

[Florida_Geek]

3. True there are rules on it

BUT, Tampa gets one normally on every shuttle landing. The shuttle is an exception to the rule :)

[Sandstorm]

2. Happened to me once

This happened two years in a row when I lived in Lubbock, TX. Planes from the air bases across the border in New Mexico would fly over. I remember once thinking a neighbor's house must have exploded it was so loud.

[Gin]

4. we are getting the new F-14's here in Va Beach and there has been

a big controversy over the noise.....is this the same plane? If so...look out.

[mr_hat]

9. There are no new F-14s.

[Gin]

10. maybe its F-16's.....my mistake...all I know is they are super loud..

but...ahhhh the sound of freedom....barf!

[oostevo]

27. You're thinking of the new F/A-18s that are coming

(thanks, Meyera)

[alfredo]

7. A sonic boom caused our football team to jump off sides

during a big game

[mn9driver]

5. Military is pretty restrictive about supersonic flight

where it would bother large numbers of people, as you say. The exception would be if it were operationally necessary. An intercept, perhaps? Or maybe just a screw up.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

14. Don't think it was a screw up. I wonder what happened today?

I heard two on LI, coming from the ocean about 5 mins apart, about the same time this one in GA was reported.

Some big shit hit the fan somewhere.

[SinkingInTheRain]

6. I love sonic booms

We used to get them all the time in the 60s from F4 Phantoms training for Nam. We lived in an "unihabited" area where they would do tree-top sonic booms.

[bobbyboucher]

8. F-4, treetop sonic booms,

and pink elephants.

[jayfish]

12. Good One. -NT-

Jay

[SinkingInTheRain]

16. Good one? I guess I don't get it.

Where I lived in VA a B52 would come up the holler and then two F4s would rip up behing him at tree-top level running about mach 1.2+

The noise was enjoyed by us kids.

[bobbyboucher]

19. They might have been loud,

but super-sonic at treetop level is relatively rare if at all. I might even go out on a limb here and say you are mistaken.

[SinkingInTheRain]

21. Not mistaken at all

They were making napalm runs at tree=top level at mach 1+

I lived on the hillside and they were 200 feet below me at about 10 feet off the tree tops. The leading B52 was no more than 200 feet off the trees.

No shit.

[bobbyboucher]

22. They weren't doing mach 1 or better,

napalm runs at mach 1 is ridiculous.

[SinkingInTheRain]

26. Wrong

Most napalm drops were at supersonic.

[bobbyboucher]

28. No they weren't.

Do you know how difficult it is to acheive mach 1 at low altitude? Most fighters/bombers rarely fo super-sonic at all.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

29. Are you actually saying there was napalm dropped in VA

by B-52's at tree-top supersonic flight?

Is that your final answer?

[Mrs. Overall]

13. I also lived in a remote area when I was a child

in the late 6o's. We heard at least several a day--some so loud the windows shook. I used to like them, too.

[SinkingInTheRain]

15. It's a pyro / fireworks thing with me.

I love big booms.

[spinbaby]

40. Heck, in the 60s...

...they'd boom in inhabited areas. I grew up with sonic booms in Pittsburgh. Used to hear them daily in the late afternoon.

[gate of the sun]

11. funny I think I heard one today

it sounded like a loud explosion and even the curtains moved.....the windows were closed. We went outside and decided that it must have been a sonic boom.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

17. Where are you, in general terms?

This is very interesting.

[gate of the sun]

23. Santa Fe New Mexico.

n/t

[DemoTex]

18. DU pilots: aren't there pretty strict rules about going supersonic over ..

Yes/No. Sounds like an intercept to me. Intercepts happen every day. Be thankful we have aircraft that can kick-in the afterburner, make a big-boom, and intercept anything threatening the very vulnerable cities like NY. I have no problem with strong homeland defense. Screw Afganistan and Iraq, though.

[bobbyboucher]

20. Am I wrong to think that

super-sonic at treetop level doesn't happen?

[DemoTex]

24. SS at tree-top can happen, but doesn't (since the B-58 Hustler days)

Can be done in after-burner on the deck at the expense of a lot of Jet-A.


B-58

[bobbyboucher]

25. That's what I thought, especially in practice.

Super-sonid is more difficult the lower your altitude and is just not what is done. Especially practicing napalm runs.

[BiggJawn]

43. Nice photo, Mac. Those used to be based East of here.

Used to hear sonic booms all the time until around 1967 or so when I was a kid in IND. then no more.
Some Jock used to come by once a month and buzz the campus, shooting T n' G at LAF and hitting the burner last year. guess they either wanted to scare the international students, or assure the locals....
It was cool to watch him running the pattern at an extremely high speed and the over-campus passes with snap turns and instant pull-ups...

[oostevo]

30. I'm no pilot,

But for civilian aircraft, the FAA set a speed limit of 250kts below 10,000ft. I believe something similar applies to military aircraft not engaged in an operation.

[DemoTex]

33. Military is exempt. Look at the low-level, high-speed, "oil-burner" routes

You are right about the 250 kias below 10,000 ft speed limit. I once did 253 kias below 10,000 feet and never got prosecuted.

[bobbyboucher]

34. What's super-sonic?

Around 700?

[KDLarsen]

41. True...

.. but quite often, ATCO's allow the aircrafts to fly above that speed, especially on departure, since some of the heavy aircrafts (747's, 777's, A340's) have to go faster than 250 to retract the slats, and it's not really a good thing to have the hanging out all the way up to 10,000 feet.

And the military is a whole different game when it comes to speed limits.

Also, aircrafts can be given permission to fly supersonic even over land. As far as I know, Concorde was given a special flightpath through Canada, when it flew supersonic from JFK to Seattle (and set a time record that will probably stand for a good number of years).

[MikeGalos]

31. Huh?

An F-16 flying from southeast South Carolina to Savannah (a 135 mile flight) made a sonic boom that was loud in Columbus enough to sound like a huge explosion? And startled people in a town used to mortar practice at Ft. Benning?

The nearest that flight path would take it to Columbus is when it was landing in Savannah and that's 225 miles away. A sonic boom that would be percieved as a "huge explosion" from 225 miles away is pretty inconcievable. And that's ignoring that the trailing overpressure cone wouldn't have reached that far or even been in the right area.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

32. Like I said, I wonder what the hell happened today.

[Robb]

39. Good point

An overpressure "cone" is about one mile wide on the ground for each 1000 feet of altitude.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

35. Had to be pretty doggone loud to startle people in Columbus, GA (m)

I used to live there when my husband was stationed at Ft. Benning and you got used to pretty loud sounds.

[GregD]

36. Here in Marin too

a couple weeks ago. Shook the house.

[annagull]

37. Used to be a huge mystery in Charleston, SC

when I was a kid in the 70's. I lived on Sullivan's Island off Chas. harbor where they had nuclear subs, we thought either those subs blew up or an earthquake. It used to be on the local news as an unexplained phenomenon. Only later did we find out it was the AF base.

[david_vincent]

38. Not a sonic boom

Some of you might recall that Columbus, GA is where a deputy
shot and killed an unarmed, non-resisting black man a couple
of weeks ago. The police cruiser's video of the incident was
withheld by the Sheriff's Department in spite of the video
being, under the law, public property. It also turned out
that the murdered man had no criminal record of any kind,
not even a speeding ticket.
This noise was a sign of divine displeasure.

[CaptainClark23]

42. Unified Defense '04

http://www.northcom.mil/index.cfm?fuseaction=news.showstory&storyid=CF9F542C-B85B-8D65-1A502D621147D9DB


Let's just hope its not like 'Vigilant Guardian' hurm....