What was that big boom on Thursday?

Dozens of Ozarkians were startled Thursday afternoon by a loud boom that rattled dishes and sent folks scurrying outside in some places to look for signs of an explosion somewhere. Ozark County Sheriff’s Department dispatcher Ken Burnett said calls came in from “all over” as residents tried to find out what caused the boom.
Sheriff’s office callers and Facebook users reported hearing the boom here as well as in Mountain Grove, West Plains, Cabool, Pomona, Caulfield, Sycamore, Bakersfield and Willow Springs, among other places.
Hoping to find the source, the Times contacted the U.S. Air Force bases in Little Rock, Arkansas, and in Sedalia. But public affairs officers there said “nothing supersonic” operates out of those air bases. They suggested calling the Federal Aviation Administration flight standards office in Kansas City, where ops supervisor Doug Jackson said he was unaware of any supersonic flights in this area. But he suggested that the sonic boom, if that’s what it was, might have been caused by a Boeing aircraft coming out of the company’s St. Louis manufacturing facility. A test flight, perhaps.
The Times made multiple calls to the flight test and operations department in the Boeing Test and Evaluation division, but the calls were not returned by press time. So it’s still not known what caused Thursday’s big boom.
However, a clue might be found on the Boeing.com website, where a feature story describes how, on Feb. 20, “the first Super Hornet off the Boeing St. Louis production line in nearly two years entered the U.S. Navy fleet. Several more Super Hornets will follow.”
Among the F/A-18 Super Hornet’s capabilities touted on the website is one especially eye-catching characteristic. It’s the aircraft’s speed, which is listed as “Mach 1.6.”

Ozark County Times

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