Noise at 4.20am wakes people from London to Cambridge
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Photograph of Typhoon by Defence Images released via Creative Commons BY-SA 2.0 |
The loud bang heard in the early hours of Sunday morning 1 December was the result of a sonic boom from RAF planes, according to the Metropolitan police.
Thousands of people were woken by the noise and took to social media claiming they’d heard an explosion in their neighbourhood.
Hertfordshire police and fire brigade received “a large number of calls” about the incident.
According to the Guardian, the loud bang was caused by supersonic Typhoon fighter jets scrambled in response to plane that was not answering air traffic control.The loud bang heard throughout north London and surrounding areas was the result of a sonic boom from RAF planes. There is no cause for concern.— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) December 1, 2019
Local police and firefighters tried to reassure concerned residents via Twitter.
We have taken a number of calls from people reporting a loud bang in parts of the county. We would like to reassure you we have not had reports of an explosion or any other incident which may have caused this.— Herts Police (@HertsPolice) December 1, 2019
Others speculated on the cause of the incident.Confirmed RAF sonic boom https://t.co/KSRCKJjwwe— Herts Fire Control (@HertsFRSControl) December 1, 2019
At approx 0400z Royal Air Force Typhoons callsign 5EA26 & 5EA27 launched from RAF Coningsby to an unresponsive aircraft— Mil Radar (@MIL_Radar) December 1, 2019
After reports of a loud bang across #Essex #Hertfordshire & https://t.co/l5g0ol69jU at around 420am turns out it was a sonic boom caused by 2 Typhoon jets after an aircraft lost communications in UK airspace which was later re-established; jets now back @RAFConingsby #HeartNews pic.twitter.com/u6hcEqzQWM— Heart News East (@HeartNewsEast) December 1, 2019
If the #sonicboom woke you up, here's some info. It was apparently a ferry flight for a private 767 en route from Tel Aviv to New Hampshire and Phoenix. Why didn't it respond to ATC? No comment so far, but it's possible the crew fell asleep? Any other ideas? https://t.co/H9ZAqTh2vh— Victoria Scott (@Toryscott) December 1, 2019

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