Everything went fine in Bangalore until 1:24 PM after which panic gripped the city after a thunderous sound was heard in many areas including Marathahalli, Whitefield, Sarjapur, Electronic city and Hebbal. While a few happened to call their near ones in the city, many of them took to social media channels wondering if it was an earthquake or a bomb blast.
Many citizens have reported window panes and buildings shake accompanied by the loud sound at around 1:24 PM while a few informed that the sound was heard from electronic city to White Field. While the city speculated it be an earthquake, Srinivas Reddy, Director of the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), informed that their sensors have not recorded any earthquake activity.
https://twitter.com/HinduNirbhay/status/1263046483286413312
Going by the speculations of majority thunderous sound was a sonic boom created by a supersonic fighter jet of Indian Air Force. Several people also said that it was created by a Mirage 2000, and informed that the jets have been flying over the area since morning today. But what is a sonic boom..?
A sonic boom is a phenomenon which occurs with the shock waves created in the atmosphere when an object moves faster than the speed of sound. For instance, when a supersonic jet accelerates and crosses the speed of the sound, it creates shock waves, which creates a very loud boom noise. This is the reason why planes are not allowed to go supersonic over residential areas, but sometimes they need to do it, and today’s incident can be one such occasion.
So might be such a fighter plane, most probably a Mirage 2000, caused the sonic boom today afternoon over the Karnataka capital. However, an official statement from the officials’ end is awaited.
