Loud boom from IAF test flight startles Bengaluru

BENGALURU :Residents of several parts of Bengaluru heard a loud sound around 1.25pm on Wednesday, leading to some residents rushing out of their homes to find the source. Such was the intensity of the sound that some doors, windows and even buildings rattled as if an earthquake had shaken the earth.

Nischal Prasad, a resident of Old Airport Road, said, “I sat down for lunch when I heard the deafening sound. I immediately rushed out to my balcony, thinking it was an earthquake. While the sound was loud, it lasted less than a minute,” he added.

Late in the evening on Wednesday, the official twitter handle of the defence public relations officer said it was a routine IAF test flight involving a supersonic profile that took off from Bengaluru airport and flew in the allotted airspace well outside City limits. The aircraft was of Aircraft Systems and Testing Establishment (ASTE).

“The aircraft was far away from the city limits when this occurred. The sound of a sonic boom can be heard and felt by an observer even when the aircraft is flying as far away as 65 to 80 kilometres away from the person,” the defence PRO handle tweeted.

Residents reported the sound from Whitefield, Koramangala, HSR Layout, Attibele, Chandapura and several other localities of Bengaluru. The officials of KSNMDC said that seismometers would have captured some readings even if it was a mild earthquake.