Navy Takes Responsibility for Several Recent Sonic Booms

(Photo Credit: Ensign John Gay,
USS Constellation, US Navy)

WBOC

OCEAN CITY, Md.- The Navy confirmed Thursday that the Naval Air Station Patuxent River was the cause of three of the five recent sonic booms recently heard in Worcester County and other nearby locales.

Douglas Abbotts, a spokesman for the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, said the three sonic booms happened while the military was testing aircraft approximately 20 to 30 miles off of the Atlantic coast.

Referring to the sonic booms, Abbotts said, "[People will] hear them from time to time. We try not to operate other than in the middle of the day, but that is where the FAA has assigned us to do supersonic flights. And of course when you have supersonic flights, you get a sonic boom."

Abbotts said that atmospheric conditions helped amplify the sounds of the sonic booms on the dates that they occurred. He added that sonic booms should be nothing to be alarmed about.

Source;  http://www.wboc.com/story/16067713/sonic-booms?Call=Email&Format=HTML