2 Md. Fighter Jets Responsible For Sonic Boom Heard Along East Coast
PATUXENT RIVER, Md. (WJZ) -- Sonic booms rattled nerves up and down the East Coast Thursday afternoon.
Residents reported hearing loud booms and feeling the ground and buildings shake from Connecticut all the way to New Jersey.
The jets responsible for the sonic boom are from Maryland.
The booms heard and felt along the eastern shoreline came from two fighter jets from the Naval Air Station in Patuxent River, Maryland.
"It's kind of scary. You are in school and you hear noises and you are not really sure what's going on," said a student, who felt the sonic boom.
"The house was shaking," said a New Jersey resident.
Officials say the jets were conducting super-sonic testing off the coast Thursday afternoon.
The Navy says test flights are done almost daily in the same area, but most aren't felt on land.
They're conducted offshore in an area called the test track -- which is parallel to the coast of the Delmarva Peninsula, which includes Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.
The booms are caused when the jets go faster than the speed of sound, breaking the sound barrier.
"The blinds and everything started shaking in the office," said another eyewitness.
The U.S. Geological Survey says there were a total of nine booms and believe atmospheric conditions allowed people to hear them.
"The house rattled, all the windows rattled-- the whole house shook," another area resident said.
The Department of Defense has a hotline set up to report noise disturbances for the Naval Air Station in Patuxent River.
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