Anyone Else Hear the Boom Sunday Evening?

[Mike Avery]

This kind of freaked us out last night. Anyone else here this?

Mysterious light in sky, loud explosion rattles nerves in Hampton Roads | TOP STORIES | WVEC.com | News for Hampton Roads, Virginia (http://www.wvec.com/news/topstories/stories/wvec_local_32909_strange_light.838d22a9.html#)

Mysterious light in sky, loud explosion rattles nerves in Hampton Roads

12:21 AM EDT on Monday, March 30, 2009


(VIRGINIA BEACH) - Emergency crews fanned out across the city looking for whatever caused a loud explosion Sunday night.

At around 9:45 911 dispatchers started receiving calls from people reporting a light in the sky followed by a loud boom.

Some reported that the explosion caused their homes to shake.

However, emergency crews could find no evidence of any kind of explosion.

No injuries, fires or damage were reported.

The National Weather Service had few answers.

Jennifer McNatt, a meteorologist said the service had been in touch with the Navy, Air Force and NASA, but none of those organizations had any unusual activity to report.

Officials at Norfolk International Airport had received reports of the light and explosion, but said nothing wsa out of the ordinary at the airport.

The National Weather Service did tell officials in Virginia Beach that the reports of the light and the bang were coming in from Maryland to North Carolina.

Several callers to WVEC-TV reported their doors and windows shook.

Anyone with pictures or video of the light or the explosion should can send them to us at pics@wvec.com.


The National Weather Service released this statement at 11:17pm Sunday:

Numerous reports have been called in to this office and into local law enforcement concerning what appeared to be flashes of light in the sky over the Suffolk/Virginia Beach area. We are confident in saying that this was not lightning...and have been in contact with military and other government agencies to determine the cause. So far...we have not seen or heard of any damage from this and will continue to inquire as to the cause.

[Kevin Smith]

Mike,

If folks heard it from Maryland to VA, it sounds like a good size meteor. It will be interesting to find out and maybe someone got a little video or photo.

Kevin
Weekend Mistress

[KenG]

UFO cover-up! Or maybe a over zealous pilot playing with the sound barrier. I know on 9/11 I was in Arlington when it felt like my truck bounced of the road from an explosion that was later explained to me by a fighter pilot, as a possible sonic boom from a jet heading towards PA. Not sure but the timing was about right.

[BigWillJ]

Yes. Heard it in the mid-atlantic region. It was a loud thud. Was downstairs and thought somebody had dropped something on the floor upstairs. Strange though, when I asked if anything was dropped or heard, I got a no to both.

[Harbormaster]

I saw it here in Williamsburg and it looked like a huge shooting star around 9:45 pm and it semed like it went down some where in seaford to hampton area.

[gooosehunter]

I heard it last night. I live in Norfolk on the Lafayette River, and I just thought it was a container being dropped at NIT. It shook our house a bit and I just shrugged my shoulders and went to bed a few minutes later. I bet NASA is behind whatever happened and I doubt we will ever find out.

Dave
Island Bound

[TDAU]

Heard it in Chesapeake.

[HisDoghouse]

Mike,

I was in the den and heard the boom, but since the room faces west, didn't see the light. Figured it was an airdale pulling the Tom Cruise "buzzing the tower" maneuver. As you know, I live next to Oceana.

[Keydreams]

I ran out back thinking one of those tall pines fell. Years ago I cut down a couple of those pines and they where 95 foot tall, when they hit the ground it sounded and felt like what I heard last night.

[captdavdavis01]

I saw and felt it in Deep Creek. I just happen to be looking out the window trying to see what the dog was barking out. Shook the house pretty good, poor old dog wanted in, she didnt even eat she was so scared.

Danny

[Peddler]

Was watching Jim Gaffigan on c central last night (lmao) here in wanchese nc and saw it through my closed venecian blinds. Heard a slight thud but not really that loud here. It was so large and bright that i checked the news stations to make sure there wasnt a tidal wave coming at us. Guess i've been watching too many armageddon (sp?) type movies. Looked like a meteor.

[Al B]

Capt. Bill - I thought the same thing (fallen tree).

Somebody's got to know something.....

[ESfishdoc]

Here in Northampton County on the Eastern Shore I heard the noise and the house shuddered like it does with a shockwave from thunder....

[rude]

Excuse me...i feel better though


:d

[hookinfinger]

I saw one come across the Bay about a year ago. It was a fireball and then it exploded.


It was pretty spectacular. I did not see or read anything about it though. I think because it happened about 3am in the morning not many people saw it.


Dennis:))

[LandingCrew]

Ptsd+loud noise that sounds like mortor=wife laughing at me diving onto the ground and yelling "incoming"

ya i needed that like i need that ciguatera poisoning that healthy grin posted up:d

[V.B. wells & irrigation]

It shook my whole house. I'm sure that it was the sonic boom of an alien craft as it came in. I was abducted a few years back and spent a week with a crew before they let me go. Or it could of been TH trying to sneak back into a church again.:D

[Shanahan21220]

My wife and I were driving home around 8:10 pm last night and saw 2 huge flashed of light off in the north/northwestern sky. We thought it was heat lightning, but it was rather cool, so we didn't know what to chock it up to.

We live in southeastern Baltimore county in MD.

[Mike McCabe]

I was sitting down in the recliner with the computer in my lap and looked right at it. The blinds were open along with the window and shortly after I saw the light which looked like a flare falling over the water, I heard the boom. Very stange indeed.
Mike-Red Eye

[Bob_Marlin]

It was swamp gas from a weather balloon that refracted the light from Venus

Movie?

[zdard4oh]

MIB

[bobpride]

Sorry, everyone. I had beans for supper last night and then played with matches....

Seriously, heard it in Poquoson, thought something had hit the house!

[cantgetenough]

It was a big chunk of space poop, a boeing bomb, a lucky meteroite!

Rudy Levasseur
Above Average Sportfishing

[KenG]

It was a bird, no, a plane! It'sss Superman!!!

[gooosehunter]

MIB II. Look at this pen I am holding.

[Mike-JacksonCreek]

Here is a good explaination

WASHINGTON - The flashing lights and booming sounds that astounded people up and down the East Coast Sunday night likely came from "just a piece of orbiting space junk," says the spokesman for the Naval Observatory.

"I believe what people saw was the spectacular decay of the rocket booster that was used to launch the most recent Soyuz to the International Space Station," Geoff Chester, spokesman for the Naval Observatory, tells WTOP.

Chester says he's 99.44 percent sure that's the source of the yellow and orange flashes seen around 9:45 p.m.

Chester says the timing makes sense since Soyuz docked at the International Space Stations Saturday.

"Typically, the rocket boosters, the final stages that they use for these, will be placed in an orbit such that they will decay and burn up in the earth's atmosphere, so they don't litter up the space near the Space Station with excess space junk."

So what caused the loud boom that was heard in Southern Maryland, Virginia's Tidewater region and North Carolina?

"The Russians, to their credit, built their rockets pretty solidly," Chester says.

"When these objects enter the atmosphere, as they start to break up, especially if there is any residual propellant in any of tanks, that can literally cause the thing to explode."

Chester also says some of the larger pieces may have generated sonic booms as they went sub-sonic before entering the lower atmosphere.

Some pieces may have ended up in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., he says.

"With some 20-odd thousand pieces of that stuff floating around out there, very now and again some of it is going to enter the atmosphere and burn up."

Because the flashes were not green followed by trains of blue and red, Chester says they were not fireballs, as he and NASA Solar System Ambassador Greg Redfern previously speculated.

The flashes and booms that people heard prompted calls to 911 and the National Weather Service late Sunday night.

According to WVEC.com, the calls were numerous enough for the National Weather Service to release this statement late Sunday night:

"Numerous reports have been called in to this office and into local law enforcement concerning what appeared to be flashes of light in the sky over the Suffolk/Virginia Beach area. We are confident in saying that this was not lightning...and have been in contact with military and other government agencies to determine the cause. So far...we have not seen or heard of any damage from this and will continue to inquire as to the cause."

[KenG]

Here is a good explaination

WASHINGTON - The flashing lights and booming sounds that astounded people up and down the East Coast Sunday night likely came from "just a piece of orbiting space junk," says the spokesman for the Naval Observatory.
"

Like I said! UFO. Can you spell Government cover up. LOL

[saltyfishn]

no no no i was trying out my new tog bomb...j/j

[racn35]

it was from Russia

[croakerfearme]

or N. Korea:eek:

[fishfool44]

We had mexican for dinner. I couldn't help it.

[Healthy Grin]

Mystery flash traced to Russian space junk - Space.com- msnbc.com (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29958635/?GT1=43001)

[Mike Avery]

OK, the weirdness continues. At 9:05 pm, Monday, just a few minutes ago, while out walking my dog, we heard would sounded like multiple, large caliber naval (could be CG) gun fire in the bay somewhere.

Anyone else here that?

[Mike McCabe]

I heard the same thing standing @ the back of my boat. It sounded like fireworks but who is celebrating on Monday night? This place always amazes me.
Mike-Red Eye

[striper_on]

Mike it was my howitzer. :D Sorry for that dude.:clap:

[captdavdavis01]

Do they still fire the 9 o'clock cannon? I remember hearing it growning up.

I simply dont buy the space junk explanantion. It took them half a day to come up with that lame excuse. I would think that some agency tracks anything moving up above us, especially near one of the largest military facilites in the world. Maybe ET came for his bail out cash?

[night nurse]

Great even ET gets a bail out and I get screwed....again

[BLUEYZWAITN]

It was a Weather ballon exploding when it hit the Atmosphere and the Helium ignited...............Or Was IT ......
THe Cover-up continues

[Bryansfish]

The boom heard was my 18' Bass Boat with quad 350's going by as I was chasing down a navy jet that buzzed our house. Sorry, if a woke anyone up.

[BottomKnocker]

I still like the Boeing Bomb theory! Space do-do!!! HAHAHA