More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
This is the moment a military jet caused a huge bang which shook homes across Kent.
The loud explosion was caused by a sonic boom from an RAF Typhoon which flew over the county today - and the moment was caught on a video door bell.
Thousands of people took to social media to ask others what the noise was.
People reported hearing it in Borstal, Rochester, Gillingham, Gravesend, Greenhithe and Meopham and even Swale.
The aircraft is thought to have been scrambled to escort a Bombardier Global Express business jet into Stansted.
The plane set out from Nuremberg airport in Germany but it is not known why it needed an escort.
An RAF spokesman said: "The RAF can confirm Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon aircraft were launched this afternoon from RAF Coningsby to intercept a civilian aircraft that had lost communications.
"Subsequently, communications were re-established, the aircraft was intercepted and safely escorted to Stansted."
The boom was heard as far afield as Cambridge and Essex.
Tommy Barham saw the funny side.
He tweeted: "Absolutely no coincidence that I’m hitting golf balls on the Rec and there is a sonic boom heard in Cambridge. Fore!"
James Minihane made a topical quip about who the passenger of the intercepted plane might be, suggesting it was Presidential aircraft Air Force One.
Heather Ramsden was working at her home in Canterbury Road, Sittingbourne, when she heard the bang, which she described as a "loud crack and thud".
She said: "I thought something had fallen down upstairs or my daughter had dropped something in her bedroom.
"I went around the house and even into the loft but couldn't see anything obvious. I even went outside to have a look in the road to see if they'd been an accident.
"I was genuinely puzzled, but it all made sense when I saw the reports about the sonic boom."
Flight tracking website ADSBexchange.com recorded a Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 reaching a peak speed of over 1,000 knots (1,150mph) above Ickleton, just south of Cambridge.
A sonic boom is created when an object moves through air faster than the speed of sound, 767mph, which the jet first surpassed near Peterborough.
Sam Harrison, who captured the sonic boom on their Ring doorbell camera in Hornchurch, east London, said: “At first I thought it was either an explosion or an earthquake … I ran outside expecting to see a lot of smoke."
The jets are often deployed to escort aircraft that lose contact with air traffic control or don’t respond to communications.
Social media users have reported hearing the sonic boom from across the South East.
According to some Twitter users, the sound travelled as far as Cambridgeshire.
One, with the handle @monkchips, wrote: "That was.... an impressively loud bang, given I see folks reporting it in Cambridge, Essex, Kent, north and south London.
It was so loud that some feared it might have been the infamous Richard Montgomery wreck exploding.
The ship sunk off the Isle of Sheppey coastline more than 75 years ago, and holds enough explosives to create a huge blast if accidentally triggered.
Nick Gallwey posted: "Heard it near Sevenoaks too. Thought the Montgomery had gone up off Sheerness. It was a double bang and quite a pressure wave too.
"Scared a load of pheasants in the woods where I was walking."
