Several residents of Bengaluru on Wednesday, 20 May, reported hearing a loud booming sound in the eastern parts of the city. On social media, several people reported hearing a booming sound and a thunderous noise, while some claimed they felt tremors and windows rattling.
More than eight hours later Ministry of Defence (MoD) issued the statement clarifying that subsonic episode was caused by an IAF aircraft.
Confirming that it was a routine IAF test flight involving a supersonic profile which took off from Bengaluru Airport, the Defence Ministry said that the sonic boom was probably heard while the aircraft was decelerating from supersonic to subsonic speed between 36,000 and 40000 feet altitude.
Soon after the boom, Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao issued a statement stating police were not able to find any physical damage: “No damage reported anywhere. We also got information bt the media, the sound was heard from the international airport to Hebbagodi, Bengaluru. No calls to 100 till now of any damage,” he said.
A similar statement was issued by MN Anucheth, deputy commissioner of police, Whitefield. “A booming sound heard across eastern Bengaluru from International airport, Kalyan Nagar, MG road, Marathahalli, Whitefield, Sarjapur, Electronic city right up to Hebbagodi. We are trying to ascertain the source of the noise. In Whitefield area, we have searched on the ground and so far there is no damage to anything,” he said.
Not an Earthquake
Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) confirmed that no earthquake was reported in Bengaluru. “The seismometers did not capture any ground vibration as generally happens during a mild tremor. The activity is purely a loud unknown noise,” said a senior KSNDMC official.
While the authorities are trying to find answers to explain this anomaly, people on Twitter had some lighthearted response to it.
Sample these tweets:
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