Boom town! Supersonic fighter jets wake London
A LOUD bang that woke people across the south-east in the early hours of yesterday was caused by a sonic boom from two Typhoon jets.
The fighter planes were scrambled from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire to intercept an unresponsive aircraft. They were cleared to go faster than the speed of sound, leading to the noise that woke people in London, Essex and Hertfordshire.
An RAF spokeswoman said: ‘ Two Typhoon fighter aircraft from RAF Coningsby were scrambled at 0409 this morning as part of the UK’s Quick Reaction Alert procedures after an aircraft lost communications in UK airspace.
‘The aircraft was intercepted and its communications were re-established.’
Shortly after the boom, the Met Police tweeted: ‘There is no cause for concern.’ Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue received a ‘large number’ of calls about the noise while members of the public posted online. Actor Logan Dean tweeted: ‘Anyone else hear a loud bang and feel the shockwave 4.20am? Heard a loud plane noise soon after – maybe just a sonic boom.#loudbanglondon.’
Rak Patel posted: ‘Heard the #sonicboom over London at 4.20am. Woke us both up. Wife thought it was an explosion, I thought our boiler had exploded. Glad it was neither.’
Some people shared clips and pictures of another type of sonic – the computer game character Sonic The Hedgehog. Others joked the real explanation was that Father Christmas and his reindeer were on their way.
Elena Goulden said: ‘“It was RAF fighters”. Yeah, sure – that’s what they always tell us until giant lizards come Godzilla-ing their way down Hoxton.’