Two F15 Fighters were scrambled from Portland AFB today on a report from NORAD that Air Force One airspace was compromised by an unknown aircraft over Seattle. Local media reports the Fighters were on full afterburners on rollout, takeoff and climbing on the way to Seattle. That explains the “rolling thunder” at work about midday. We seldom get ordinary thunder around here and rolling thunder just doesn’t exist (Oh, how I missed thunderstorms in the Midwest).
(I later asked my wife about this, and if she experienced anything unusual at work. She works about 1,500 east of of the main East-West runway and about 300 feet off the centerline. “Meh,” was her response, probably because ANG flies everyday with at least four Fighters at 0900. Even with the super insulated buildings, you still cannot carry on a conversation inside when the Fighters take off to the East.)
Wait, it gets better.
The Fighters went supersonic over Pierce County (Seattle). The 911 system went down in Pierce County. Home and car alarms went off. There were reports homes were shaking.
Ah, the memories as a kid when Truax Air Force Base would light up with exercises and the F102 Delta Daggers flew sorties all over town generating sonic booms.
The 318th isn’t stationed at McChord any more? I have been away for a while.
Extreme nitpick: Seattle isn’t in Pierce County. For which I’m sure it gives thanks on its knees nightly.
Hadn’t heard anything like that since an industrial propane tank exploded about a mile from my house. Queer and disturbin’, it was.
I had an opportunity to see a bunch of fighters at an airshow recently, and by golly, those things are loud. Full afterburner, heading away from us at close range, and I swear I could feel my ribs clanging. I feel your pain.
Key West, FL they take off w/ sonic boom Boyd’s campground just across the bay. fighter jocks will get special permission to do a straight up take off from the tower (to impress relatives watching it).
A year ago a fighter buzzed the CLE airport, 500 feet and 300-500 mph, airshow weekend…did turn with spoiler up I recall…
We heard it, my wife and I had left work early and were at the ferry dock in West Seattle waiting for the next ferry. A ferry had just left when we heard this loud boom, we (and all the ferry workers) had thought something hit the ferry dock. Lots of scrambling by the ferry crew but since there wasn’t a boat within 200 feet it all settled down quickly.
It wasn’t until I got home that I turned on the news and figured out what it was. But it was pretty loud down there. Sort of cool in a odd way. BTW this was about 1:50 in the afternoon.
This brings back memories of living near Midwest City, OK, home of Tinker Air Force Base, in the '60’s and '70’s. You just got used to the multiple sonic booms every day. After a while, they weren’t even topics of conversation, kind of like how you don’t talk about the hot weather in Death Valley. My grandfather was a refueler at Tinker and could identify the jets by their engine sound as they flew overhead.
He swore that the crack along the plaster in the living room ceiling was caused by the sonic booms, but I’m guessing it was the foundation settling.
Yep, where do I get my “Old Fart” badge?
From my oldest son’s Facebook page:
“Two sonic booms briefly shook the area this afternoon as F-15s were scrambled from Portland due to a report of a floatplane flying in restricted airspace. The sonic booms would’ve lasted longer, but they were abruptly stolen by Oklahoma City businessman Clay Bennett and NBA Commissioner David Stern.”
I used to live under the flightpaths for Naval Air Station Norfolk {virginia} and worked in an office located under the flightpath at Oceana Air Station Va beach {va}
I can ID aircraft by sound quite well …
There is nothing like the 5AM C-5 coming in at 100 feet over the house to get one out of bed.
It made the front page on CNN. I’m glad they’re not messing around.
I grew up near a NIKE base and we used to hear sonic booms all the time. I miss that.
I’m now working very near an airfield and there’s an air show next weekend. I’m really looking forward to watching practice!
I live in an area where the only airplanes that fly overhead are air force jets. Every once in a while we will get a sonic boom. I still notice them (how could I not?), but we’re used to them.
We get em most every day, sometimes multiple times a day, so no big whoop for us. It’s funny when we have vistors and they jump simply because the building is shaking! My big fear is we’ll have a real explosion one day and no one will react becuase they think it’s just a normal boom.
The first time I ever heard sonic booms was when I was ten years old. We had just moved to Anchorage, where there is a large Air Force base. This was in about 1958, so the cold war was in full tilt boogie mode. The fighter squadron launched in the dead of night, probably because of an incursion off the coast of Alaska. Since that’s a significant distance from Anchorage, they weren’t wasting any time. Scared the shit out of me, as I thought it was nuclear armageddon.
So did they shoot down the float plane?