Holy Moly! Buzzed by fighter jets

[Robert F. O'Connor]

Wow, not fifteen minutes ago (right about 7:20-7:30 pm PT) one and then another (I could see both in the sky at one point) fighter jets did a couple loops right over my head, coming very low at times and making a hellacious noise, one flying off to the NNW roughly and the second, coming not quite as low, but which could be seen diving as he headed SSE roughly.
I am in Petaluma, in southern Sonoma County, about 70 miles north of the San Francisco Bridge and nowhere near any kind of military facilities. We are under a popular flight approach to the San Francisco and Oakland Airports and, until last week, the jet traffic to those two airports, getting lower as the near the bay, was pretty regular, sometimes getting a little noisy, but never anything like this.
I don't know what's up but it was quite startling, bringing the whole neighborhood out into the street.
-Robert

 

[Alex-C]

Hey I have got one for you. This was so weird.
The other night I had problems sleeping and I woke up at 1:30 am, and was lying awake for about an hour. Well during that time, I heard the strangest loudest low rumbling sound I have ever heard. It sounded low and thunderous like thunder, but it was not thunder. It sounded distant. I was too tired to get up and go outside but even with no windows open I could tell it was not a localized noise.
It sounded like thunder does, so loud that you know it can be heard regionally.
I thought maybe it was a sonic boom of some war planes overhead....but of course, that is not done over the U.S. I dunno...couldnt figure it out and didnt see anything in the paper about it...just weird. Did not sound like an industrial plant or something (when I was growing up we lived several miles from a power plant and at times, usually during the night, you could hear it letting off steam or some damn thing, it was unmistakenable and not a big deal.)
anyway, I sure wish I knew what it was....I was half dreaming it was a fleet of B-1s going overhead....that would have been kewl !
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[Inspector Hammer!]

Yes sir, listen to the bell bin Ladin it tolls for thee!
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GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.!

 

[Dan B]

About 6 years ago, a Stealth bomber flew over my house, pretty low and slow. It was unusual, because they don't often fly in the daylight, and I am in the middle of nowhere in Wisconsin.
I tell you, seeing one of those up close is enough to make a guy weep! Now that is some fine hardware.
Oh yeah, I have a story about 2 F-16's & an unidentified flying object, but I don't want to face ridicule, so I won't bother with that one.

-Dan
"routine F-16 training my ass"

 

[Seth Paxton]

I thought maybe it was a sonic boom of some war planes overhead....but of course, that is not done over the U.S. I dunno

Well, that's not entirely true obviously. The fighter jets sent to intercept the plane headed for the Pentagon did the 130+ miles in 14 minutes, at supersonic speeds up to 720 knots.
If there is a need, they will do the speed. We already have patrols checking some of the airspaces. Plus, I wouldn't be surprised if a few practice runs, etc. were being done as well.
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[MikeH1]

I was laying in bed a few months ago and heard what sounded like some fighter jets roar over my apartment. I thought maybe I was dreaming and after asking a bunch of people that live in my neighborhood I'm convinced I dreamt it. But holy shit was it loud
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[Robert F. O'Connor]

Actually, the roar of passenger and cargo jets beginning their descent into the Bar Area is pretty common here at night and when they push the FAA minimum altitude limits (as the often do) it is loud enough to wake people up with a distant roaring sound. That roar and those amazingly bright landing lights are what we don't see much of anymore, even now that there are supposedly a lot of flights up.
Anyway, I have a sort of answer for what happened from a local news show out of Santa Rosa to the North. Apparently at the Petaluma Airport, which is a small chunk of asphalt for tiny little prop planes not too many residential blocks away from where I live, an approaching plane "was not following proper procedures" and the airport management "asked for assistance in identifying the plane." A pair of jet fighters were actually scrambled to the area. The plane landed and "no more information is available about the plane or the incident."
This is like a SWAT team descending in force on a go-cart track to deal with a toddler road rage incident. The kind of planes that land and take off from this airport could do some damage to a house, I guess, maybe take off some roofing tiles, damage your car's paint job... I'm being facetious, but golly, these guys had to be pulling multi-G turns just to keep the airport from going over the horizon and they were stretching the loops out by going almost straight up and down. They'd shrink to little specks and then come roaring down out of the sky and up again and around...
I appreciate they are taking this stuff seriously, but wow, we thought the damn world was coming to end!
It will be interesting to see how this comes off in the Santa Rosa papers tomorrow (if it wasn't too late to make it in). Their website is www.pressdemo.com if anyone wants to take a look-see. Nothing about it there yet this evening.
-Robert

 

[Patrick_S]

I thought maybe it was a sonic boom of some war planes overhead....but of course, that is not done over the U.S. I dunno...

As Seth as already pointed out some military planes last week were indeed breaking the sound barrier.
The ban referenced in the quote really only applies to commercial jets over the continental US from time to time military planes will break the barrier but not very often.
This of course is one of the main reasons US commercial carriers never got into the SST business. Since they were barred from scheduling SST flights from coast to coast it just wasn't worth it for them to pursue SSTs just for international flights.
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[Glenn Overholt]

Alex, I've heard those too. I hear a low pitched noise. I think it's described as 'droning'. Not that they'd tell you, but if you have an air national guard unit nearby, they'd be your first bet. It sort of sounds like the prop jobs in WWII movies.
GLenn

 

[Brent Cantrell]

I was stationed at Ft Bliss in El Paso for 4 years, you guys should have seen the stealths dogfighting over the mtns and WSMR, awesome stuff!
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[John Thomas]

Those pilots had to be listening to "Highway to the Danger Zone..."

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The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. -Franklin D. Roosevelt.
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[Stephen Orr]

It's the sound of freedom, baby. Crank it up...

 

[Jay H]

When I was in Alaska, we were buzzed by an f-16 doing some serious-G rolls and flat loops while over camp 1. Of course, we passed many AF bases and National Guard units on the way from Fairbanks to Anchorage, it was weird. Those jets are quite loud but it was a real cool thing to see.
Jay
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[Parker Clack]

We had an airshow here a few weeks ago and the airport they were showing off at is pretty close by. They were doing a lot of test runs and they were flying overhead low and fast. Just their flying overhead was enough to wake me up. I can remember how pissed I was at them flying overhead so close to the ground and how loud they were. Now I know if I ever hear that sound in the near future I better be running for cover somewhere. I also find it very reassuring to know they are up there defending out skies.
Parker

 

[Ryan Wright]

quote: I tell you, seeing one of those up close is enough to make a guy weep! Now that is some fine hardware. [/quote]
Yup. A stealth fighter (not a bomber) did a fly-by a number of years back at a local air show. Too cool! I was up on a hill watching from a distance and it flew right over the top of us at what looked like only a few hundred feet up. Absolutely amazing. It was also very deceptive - when it was coming towards us at an angle, I could see it plain as day, but could barely hear it. As soon as it was overhead and the engines began to face us, the roar came up quite suddenly. As it passed us, it quickly turned into a tiny spec in the sky even though it was not moving all that fast. That spec stayed there for a very long time which leads me to believe it was not speed that made it look so small, but rather the shape. I swear, if that bad boy flew overhead at any reasonable altitude, even on a clear day you'd be hard pressed to notice it.
I lived in Oak Harbor, WA for a few years, right next to the Whidbey Island Navy Base. The planes flew overhead constantly, day and night. When they came over you had to stop your conversation. Even screaming was not loud enough to hear one another, and that level of loudness lasted a good 20 seconds each time. The TV would often flake out for a short while as well.
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-Ryan ( http://www.ryanwright.com )
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes.
That way, when you do criticize them, you'll be a mile away and you'll have their shoes.
[Edited last by Ryan Wright on September 21, 2001 at 10:27 AM]

 

[Jay Taylor]

My shop is only 1 ½ miles from the Tinker AFB runway. We hear all kinds of military aircraft coming & going, especially when Tinker hosts an exercise or the ‘weekend warriors’ are flying.
The B-1 Bombers are definitely louder than most jets but I’ve never heard anything like a B-2 Stealth Bomber taking off. On the rare occasions that they take off here, people come out of the cafeteria near my shop as if it were an earthquake, & look up in the sky like the world is coming to an end. And these people are accustomed to B-1s, B-52s, KC-135 tankers, & E-3 AWACS planes coming & going every day!
I suppose the ‘stealth’ of the stealth bomber refers to its low radar reflection and has nothing to do with the earthquake it causes when flying overhead.
Hmmmm... Maybe we should just fly an unarmed stealth bomber over the enemy & scare the shit out of them!

Jay Taylor

 

[Clinton McClure]

I've lived my entire live under an Air Force flight pattern. It's not uncommon to see and hear aircraft directly overhead both day & night.

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[Chuck C]

As I walked back from class today, I heard the sound of two roaring fighter plnaes, looked up, and saw those beauties grace the sky over Miami University...what a sight!
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Chuck
http://www.hometheaterinsider.com

 

[Ashley Seymour]

I grew up two miles from Griffiss AFB NY and the B-52's stationed there in the 60's were as loud as you can get. Then I got to Okinawa and the 52's would fly from there to Vietnam. Not a few times I would be on the shift bus at night and one would fly over about 50 ft above us. A speaker that could but out that kind of sould would definitely be above average.
In 70 the 52's were pulled out, but on several occasions there was a two engine plane that was just a loud as the 52 and would cause everyone to look up. It would take off at maybe a 70% angle, almost verticle and the pilot must have felt like John Glenn because he had two rockets straped to his ass. The Habu, the SR-71 is still the most awsome plane I have seen. Flying at 100,000 ft at 2,000+mph just has to pump out some serious testosterone.
About six years ago driving though the Teapot Domb area of Wyoming I hear a roar and saw a B-1 (probably from Rapid City South Dakota) doing a low level pass though a valley, probably not more than 200 ft up. Maybe only five seconds, but absolutely beautiful.
Heading back home we stopped at the Hill AFB museum outside SLC. On display they have the SR-71 that I could touch and something that flew about 10 times slower, but was equally beautiful and impressive, the B-17. I grew up listening and pestering my father to tell me about about his missions as a flight engineer, (waist gunner) over Germany. Every couple of years now the local airport has an air show which features a B-17, and I go every time. The jet sound is just raw power and noise, the the four piston engines is sweet and will send a chill up my spine.
My kids, 12 and 14 couldn't were bored with the Hill museum. They couldn't understand why I would linger and as I looked up at the B-17 on the ceiling, my knees got weak and my eyes misty.
If my kids and others from this generation never develop a reverence for the planes from this era, then maybe that is not all bad.
After last week I fear that in 30 and 60 years, my kids and grandchildren will know too well the tales of the planes of today, and the heroes who flew them.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

I live near Robins AFB in Warner Robins GA. They repair F-15s here and after they're repaired they have to be tested and that means going supersonic. Normally they're not allowed to do it over populated areas. They're supposed to fly a route that takes them south over rural Georgia farmland where they can break the sound barrier, then turn east and go out over the Atlantic Ocean where they can really indulge themselves. But since last Thursday with air traffic routes more restricted they threw out the rules and now they will break the sound barrier right over our heads if they need to. Last Thursday they notified the press that they would do it and even told them what time of day they would do it, but not soon enough for the press to adequately warn everybody.
Robins AFB is Georgia's largest single industrial complex and in this part of the state everyone recognizes the sound of planes overhead and the occasional sonic boom not only as the sound of freedom but the sound of many many jobs here.
I haven't had the privilege of hearing the B-2 Stealth bomber take off but there are B-1s here assigned to a National Guard unit. The B-1 is very loud and the engines have a characteristic bone-rattling signature that makes them sound even louder.
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--Wayne Bundrick