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Boom was, in fact, a boom

By PAUL DE LA GARZA
Published March 18, 2005

TAMPA - Guess what? That sonic boom that rattled the bay area last week was ... a sonic boom.

After almost a week, the Navy confirmed Thursday what many residents suspected. Two F/A-18E Super Hornets went supersonic, surpassing 700 mph, on their approach to MacDill Air Force Base about 8 p.m. on March 11.

Dennis McGrath, spokesman for Naval Air Station Lemoore in California, where the jets are based, said the pilots followed regulations established by the Federal Aviation Administration.

According to the FAA, aircraft are not allowed to travel faster than 287 mph under 10,000 feet.

McGrath said the Super Hornets - the loudest aircraft in the Navy inventory - were above 40,000 feet over water when they went supersonic.

He said the jets shattered the sound barrier about 150 miles away from MacDill. He said they slowed down about 50 miles away from base. The jets are allowed to remain at supersonic speeds up to 30 miles away from MacDill.

McGrath said the jets were on a training exercise from the Naval Air Station in Pensacola to MacDill. "It was not an unintentional thing," he said. "It was part of the original plan to go supersonic."

Normally, residents in the bay area would not have heard the boom, McGrath said. But according to one of the pilots, the wind velocity at that altitude that night was 175 mph to 200 mph, McGrath said. That could explain why the boom was heard so far away, from Citrus to Manatee counties, he said.

The pilot contacted the FAA to explain what happened, after seeing stories in the local news media.

[Last modified March 18, 2005, 00:42:17]