On Wednesday, residents of Bengaluru were left stunned after a loud boom echoed the city. The source, which reports suggest come from Whitefield, could be heard in a 17 km radius.
Later in the day, Indian Air Force confirmed that it was one of their fighter jet which went supersonic and caused the boom over Bengaluru.
The IAF released a statement which read: "No aircraft of Training Command was flying in the area. Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE) and HAL could have been undertaking their routine test flying, which necessitates going supersonic at times. These are done well beyond the city limits in specified sectors."
"However, considering the atmospheric conditions and reduced noise levels in the city during these times, the aircraft sound may become clearly audible even if it happened way out from the city," the IAF added.
While netizens initially thought it was a blast, there were no reports of casualties, and even the police said that they hadn’t received any complaints.
It was later that it was revealed that some fighter jets were going through some training programme and one of them flew quickly, releasing a sonic boom.
A sonic boom is that boom-like sound produced when a jet fighter travels faster than the speed of sound. It is caused by shockwaves that are created by an object – usually a jet fighter – and create huge amounts of shock energy.
Interestingly, while we can hear the boom, the pilot flying the plane cannot. They can, however, see the pressure waves around the plane.
