A loud boom heard and felt this week on the Eastern Shore of Delaware and Maryland left many people wondering what the noise could have been -- and now the mystery is solved.
"That was us," Patuxent Naval Air Station spokesman Pat Gordon told DelmarvaNow.com.
A Naval air squadron was testing supersonic aircraft on Wednesday between 4:30 and 5 p.m., Gordon told the news outlet. A restricted airspace that serves as a "test track" for the aircraft runs parallel to the Delmarva Peninsula.
People in Ocean City, Bethany Beach, Assateague and further inland reported feeling the boom, and the Ocean Pines Police Department received two calls about it, DelmarvaNow reported.
"The house shook, the windows rattled, and I felt the percussion in my chest. I dove to the floor thinking something had exploded and the house was going to fall in around me," one reader in Ocean View wrote to DelmarvaNow.
The temperature and humidity level on the Shore that afternoon could have made the boom sound even louder, Gordon said.
"It's just normal flight testing, it only sounds and feels catastrophic due to the weather conditions," the naval air station spokesman told the news outlet.
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The Navy and Pentagon control the testing miles offshore so it will have minimal impact on civilians.
