The mysterious sound was heard at around 1. 30pm in Bengaluru. The sonic boom rattled the people as well as the administration, leading rumours of an explosion or earthquake.
A jet of an Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter jet had caused a sonic boom over the city of Bengaluru on Wednesday, sending its residents into a panic.
"It was a routine IAF test flight involving a supersonic profile, which took off from Bengaluru airport and flew in the allotted airspace outside the city limits," said PRO Bengaluru, Ministry of Defence.
The Ministry of Defence added, "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.”
According to reports, the aircraft was of the Indian Air Force’s Aircraft Systems and Testing Establishment (ASTE), which uses the defence airport of the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) to test flights.
The ASTE's trial pilots and jet engineers test out all aircraft. The boom was heard while the jet was slowing from super-sonic to sub-sonic speed amid 36,000 and 40,000 feet height.
A Karnataka State Natural Disaster Management Committee official said seismometers did not obtain any ground vibration, which occurs during a tremor.
A city fire brigade talking to IANS said that the sound could be due to mining blast of rocks in a quarry for construction.
According to The News Minute, Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao said that was no damage reported in the city.
WHAT IS A SONIC BOOM?
According to the definition of NASA, a sonic boom is “a thunder-like noise a person on the ground hears when an aircraft or other type of aerospace vehicle flies overhead faster than the speed of sound.”
