This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Loud bang thought to be sonic boom
04/03/2023
People across the area reported hearing a loud bang at the start of Saturday lunchtime
People across the Banbury FM area reported their houses shaking with the sound of a large explosion at around 12.15pm on Saturday lunchtime.
The noise – which is thought to have been a sonic boom created by fighter jets flying faster than the speed of sound – was heard throughout the area and across the country from Leicestershire to southern Oxfordshire.
The Twitter feed for Aviation Highlights (@av_highlights) reported the sound of an explosion as a sonic boom. It said: “You just heard two Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets flying faster than the speed of sound to engage an aircraft that was not responding to air traffic control.”
The feed said the RAF Typhoons had been scrambled to intercept a Dash 8 aircraft which had experienced radio failure and was heading to London. The fighters were reportedly supersonic on their way south from RAF Coningsby. The aircraft was being escorted to London Stansted Airport.
An RAF Voyager tanker aircraft was also reported as having been scrambled to allow the Typhoons to refuel whilst staying airborne.
Aviation Highlights added: “All these aircraft are on standby 24/7 for scenarios like this.”
Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam