A mysterious loud ‘bang’ noise was heard in Bengaluru on Wednesday afternoon around 1.30 pm across several parts of the city. Many Bengaluru residents took to social media and whatsapp to state that a loud ‘bang’ had been heard in the area. It was like a thunderous noise with doors and windows shattering for few seconds.
The sound was heard as far as Ramamurthy Nagar, Old Madras Road, Hosur Road, HAL, Ulsoor, Kundanahalli, Kammanahalli, CV Raman Nagar, Cooke Town, Vivek Nagar, Whitefield and Marathahalli in the city.
Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao told TNM that no damage was reported anywhere in the city and no calls have been made to 100. “We have asked the Air Force Control Room to check if this was a flight,” he said, adding that they are waiting for the Air Force to confirm.
There is speculation that the sound could be a ‘sonic boom’ from a fighter jet flying over the city. However, this has not been confirmed by the police or Air Force. A sonic boom is the sound associated with the shock waves created whenever an object travels through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding similar to an explosion or a thunderclap to the human ear. Sonic booms due to large supersonic aircraft can be particularly loud and startling, tend to awaken people, and may cause minor damage to some structures.
Some pointed out that Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) could be conducting regular flight tests of light combat aircraft (LCA).
“We don’t know either. It has nothing to do with HAL aircraft,” an HAL spokesperson told TNM, when asked about the incident.
TNM reached out to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Management Centre (KSNDMC), who confirmed that it wasn’t an earthquake. “Earthquake activity will not be restricted to one area and will be widespread. We have checked our sensors and there is no earthquake activity recorded today,” Srinivas Reddy, Director of KSNDMC.
In 2005, too, a similar ‘sonic boom’ was heard in Bengaluru.
Source Link: TNM