WHAT was that noise??

Is anyone else awake in the Seattle area, or who might have an inkling of what this sound might be:

I just heard a sound, very much like a plane, as if it were screaming out of the sky - like it was going to crash. It made that distinct rumbly sound that planes make when they are low, but also had a high, high pitched squeal. It was loud enough to startle me out of my seat and peak out the window, but I saw nothing. I felt a faint rumble, but since I’m in an apartment, I’m willing to pass that off as irrelevant.

Now, it’s pretty quiet here in Ballard, normally, and when we hear a plane, it’s pretty obvious what it is. I don’t overreact to the sound of a plane normally, since for most of last year I lived in Boulevard Park, pretty much beside SeaTac Airport. This sounded just like a plane, low, coming in to land fast… but it sounded way too fast. There are no airports around me here, I live across from the Locks.

WTH? Any ideas? I’ve got the news on, that’s how startled I was. Everything is quiet again, now. I don’t hear any sirens, so I’m hoping there wasn’t an accident.

Wait, now I hear a helicoptor, quite distinctly. Ugh, wtf… ? :confused: :confused:

I apologise if I sound melodramatic, but this was… well, startling. I can’t say that enough!

Well, I’m in Houston, so I don’t know what you heard, but I’m glad it wasn’t followed by a loud crashing sound!

I used to live in Ballard about 25 years ago, but I can’t remember where. I think if you traveled west on Market and turned left, there were a bunch of triangle streets there. I remember a really good (cheap) Chinese restaraunt at or near that corner and a Lutheran Church on Market (cheap pancake breakfast every week).

I rented a very cool second story (cheap and tiny) apartment on a corner that was triangle shaped and overlooked a small triangular shaped park across the street. I think the whole apartment was 2-3 rooms (depending on how you look at it). I think there was a Christian Bookstore underneath the apartment and a 24 hour gym nearby.

Street people lived in the park and one day one of them passed out and fell off the bench. I went to check and see if he was ok (he was, well relatively anyway) and wound up taking a picture of his shoes on the bench. Both his shoes had holes worn in the bottom. It was an odd and interesting picture.

I haven’t thought about that time is sooo long. I eventually married a Ballard (no relation :slight_smile: )! Thanks for the (admittedly vague) memory trigger!

LOL no problem :wink: I’m still new to Ballard, but hubby grew up here, and his family lives here. I live near Market, as I said, across from the Locks (and I’m fast becoming a “boatspotter”!). There are slews upon slews of apartments here lol. There is a park quite a few blocks away from here that I’m going to go check out on one of my strolls pretty soon, and it sounds vaguely like what you described - triangular… still homeless people hanging out there, if so.
I’m sure a lot has changed in 25 years, though, as even hubby, who is only 25 himself, says Market has changed quite a bit since he was a child.
I love Ballard, and I don’t think I ever want to leave. The people here are so… hard to describe. They all mind their own business, and don’t bother anybody, but they’ll all pull together and look after you if you’re in need. Very, very low crime.
(Oh, they’re building a huge, cool-looking new library across from Bartell Drugs and WAMU - if those were there 25 years ago, lol)

Anyway, I’m glad I brought back a pleasant memory - no matter how vague. Ballard never did anyone any harm, as far as I can tell, so it’s a memory worth having :wink:

Still haven’t figured out what that horrific noise was. Nothing about it on the local news or anything. Very strange. If anything happened, it must have happened in the water, at Shilshole. No news is good news, I suppose.

Maybe this ensued?

Iampuna, is that the link you meant to link?

Anastasaeon, I live on East Queen Anne, very near Aurora. It seems not a day goes by when I hear a low-flying Sea-Tac bound plane that sounds as if there is something wrong with it. I’ve lived around the airport most of my life (am moving within 2 miles of it again at the end of the month) but planes over Queen Anne just sound different. Maybe I still have 911 in the back of my mind, though I’ve gotten used to seeing them look like they’re going to run into the buildings downtown.

There was a big helicopter over here around 1 or 2 or maybe later last night. It didn’t sound like one of the news copters returning to one of the stations near the Seattle Center. It might have been one of the red-and-white emergency 'copters I see quite often over here, though it was closer than usual. They seem to have a regular daily patrol over Lake Union for some reason.

I love the locks, by the way. There’s such a nice park there and it’s fun watching boats and salmon in the underwater viewing window.

Ca3799, did you live at the Sunset Hotel on Ballard Avenue, just off of Market and Leary Way? Near the five-cornered intersection? That’s what it sounds like from your discription. It burned down about 5 or 6 years ago but they finally demolished what was left in the last year. I used to walk by there every day on the way to work.

The park got remodeled in the last year too. In my mind, it wasn’t an improvement. There’s these funky glass sculptures way atop some telephone poles. There’s good funky and bad funky. To me, these are bad funky. But they took away the blue awning that the bums used to hang out under and maybe some of the benches too. sigh I wish they’d make it look like a real park, with plants and stuff.

Anastasaeon, I live near Children’s. I was up until about 4:30AM and I didn’t hear your big noise. It may have been because of the weather one of the planes that take off out of Sea-Tac might have changed their take off direction. The flaps and alirerons (SP?) make a lot of noise. UPS takes off sometime around
3:00am.

Uh oh that sounds like a pig flying. Looks like I gotta do a buncha shit I don’t want to now.

I’m going to run the danger of looking like a complete fool, but this thread touched off a memory of a radio broadcast I heard about a year and a half ago. It was about some flying creature that people in/around Seattle claim to have seen. I can’t remember what they called this thing, but the people calling in all talked about a noise kinda like you described. Maybe that was it? Or maybe you just dozed off for a minute and you were dreaming a bit? After all, it was the middle of the night. :slight_smile:

You’ve succeeded with the new look. Peace.

Woo Hoo! I knew I could do it.

Flying creatures, hmmm? I haven’t heard of that one. That would be one hefty bird! :smiley: About a year ago we had that cool meteor thingy - I was wide awake for that one, too. It was around the beginning of June, if I remember correctly, and I had just gone to my patio doors to open them up a crack and get some fresh air, and there was this awesome, awesome bright flash of light. I turned the news on then, too - the only difference was, many, many people saw it, and it was caught on that surveillance camera. I’d thought I was losing my mind until it was on the news! LOL

I have no idea still what this was, but there is no news about it, so it couldn’t be that bad. It most definately was not a dream - I have never slept at night since I was a child, unless I force myself to. (Horrible when you have to go to school! - Great for the night shift, though). I don’t normally go to bed until about 8-9am, so it was kind of like my early evening when I heard it. Definately wide awake, with a fresh coffee in my hand. I don’t drink or take any drugs of any kind. I’m not used to being so startled by airplane noises, since, as I mentioned before, I lived for a year beside SeaTac Airport, and I heard some unholy noises coming out of there and never had any “that doesn’t sound right” noises. Not all of the planes sounded healthy, granted, and made some awful screechy noises sometimes, but they caused me no worry. The Blue Angels didn’t bother me a bit - incidentally, I slept through them the days they practiced before the show :cool:

I’m going to have to go with picunurse’s idea that it was a different type of plane than we’re used to out here. I can’t think of any other explanation for it. Maybe with the clouds/fog, whatever, the noise was amplified? I have no idea.

I’m well aware how it sounds like I’m overreacting - I would think so myself if I hadn’t heard it and someone else had. I’m not leaning toward any “unexplained phenomena” either, as I read my posts, I realise I might come across as that. lol nonono! I really thought it was an accident of some sort, but obviously it couldn’t have been, or I (or someone) would have heard about it by now.

A friend of mine mentioned maybe military aircraft, testing things out? Could that be a possibility?

Naturally, there is a logical explanation, I just may never find out for certain.

-Stasia: planespotter :dubious:

P.S. - iampunha: ooooh, that looks like… hey, waitaminute…that’s either an old picture… or… it took out that eyesore, the EMP! HOORAY! :smiley: (I apologise to fans of the EMP - it was the worst $20 I’ve ever spent in my life. Couple of minor interesting things, more novelty than informative… the James Brown simulation-style ride that was there when I went was pointless - though hilarious. I wouldn’t pay that kind of money to see it again).