CHILTON COUNTY, Alabama -- The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating whether a sonic boom was the cause of the loud sound that rattled walls across Chilton County Tuesday afternoon.
It could be Thursday before authorities are able to determine whether the noise and rumbling, which was also reported in Bibb County, was in fact caused by a sonic boom, said FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen. More than 100 calls about the incident were received by Chilton County 911 about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Bergen said if there was a sonic boom, it would have had to have been caused by a military aircraft because no civilian plane flies fast enough to cause one.
A spokesman for Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery said none of the aircraft that fly out of there travel fast enough to cause a sonic boom. A spokesman for the Alabama Air National Guard said today he would look into the report, but no information had been provided as of this afternoon.
It wouldn't be the first time a sonic boom has rattled walls and windows in Alabama.
Residents in Choctaw, Washington and Clarke counties reported a loud sonic boom in Feb. 2010 as three jets from the Pensacola Naval Air Station flew through the area.
In 2009, aircraft from a base in Tennessee broke the sound barrier and caused loud booms heard by many Madison County residents.
In 1995, police dispatchers in Pelham sent officers out looking for the source of the noise after getting calls from concerned residents. That noise was later determined to have been caused by a landing of Discovery space shuttle.
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