Source of booms uncertain

From Staff Reports

April 17, 2008 10:36 am

— For the second time in as many nights on Wednesday, emergency personnel from area agencies were called to investigate an explosion only to call off the search with nothing to show for it.
Emergency personnel from Howard and Tipton counties searched for more than an hour Wednesday night after receiving reports of a downed airplane. Several people reported seeing flare-type lights shortly after the area was rocked by a loud boom just after 10 p.m.
Though one person reported finding debris, that account was later proven false.
The search, which drew the attention of several media outlets, was called off around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, and emergency personnel said the occurrence might have been military planes flying in the area or possibly an atmospheric event such as a meteor.
Logansport residents experienced a similar loud noise Tuesday night around the same time. Shortly after hearing the boom, which shook the walls of buildings throughout Logansport and the surrounding areas, a caller reported seeing a fireball in an area just west of Ind. 25 on 350N.
Logansport, New Waverly and Twelve Mile fire departments were initially called out, but the search was called off not long after when the person called back to indicate that the light he saw had come from a nearby security light.
Col. Gary Lockard of the Grissom Air Force Base said he had no information on what caused the booms Tuesday and Wednesday nights. What he could provide was what the sounds were not.
“The aircraft have here based at Grissom aren’t capable of creating sonic booms because KC-135s don’t go that fast,” he said.
The colonel said he had received numerous calls asking whether the booms were caused by fighter planes from Grissom. He is checking with air traffic control to see if anything from Grissom was flying the nights in question, but even if there were, he said, those planes cannot break the sound barrier.
Although Lockard could not confirm their training schedule, he did say the Indiana Air National Guard flew F-16 fighter aircraft, which can create a sonic boom.
“Folks just should not jump to the wrong conclusion or speculate until the authorities to get a chance to look at that and see exactly what they think might have happened,” Lockard said.
Sgt. John Nystrom of the Indiana State Police said his agency had no investigation under way.
“I don’t have anybody actively searching for anything right now,” Nystrom said.
State police did search the area near the Howard-Tipton county line. They were unable to locate anything indicating that there had been an explosion. They searched for a crash site or explosion on a farm.
According to the aviation section of the Indiana State Police, the annual Lyrid meteor showers are occurring April 16 through 21. Orange fireballs in the sky and explosions are consistent with meteor showers, Nystrom said.