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The Courier Mail News
THOUSANDS
thought it was an earthquake, others thought it was a bomb. Buildings
shook, windows rattled, dogs howled.
There were
no report of damage, but a mystery boom that rocked a 142km stretch
of the coast in south-east Queensland left lots of worried residents
in its wake.
Earthquake
sensors did not register a disturbance, even though the 15-second
"boom" hit thousands of homes between Buderim and North
Stradbroke Island.
Earthquake
monitoring centres were flooded with calls that a tremor had hit
just after 3.30pm, but no damage was reported.
Last night
the RAAF admitted that one of its F-111s had gone supersonic east
of Ballina in NSW. But they played down the chances that the jet
was cause of the boom.
RAAF Wing
Commander Rob Lawson said the F-111, flying at 160m, finished
its manoeuvre 100km off the coast at Beenleigh.
He said he
could not rule out the possibility that the jet had caused the
"tremor". But "we go supersonic there all the time
and people in Brisbane don't ever notice it," he said.
Air traffic
control agency Airservices Australia said last night there was
an area of air space off the coast where military aircraft were
permitted to fly faster than sound.
Spokesman
Richard Dudley said while that area did not extend as far north
as Bribie Island, it was possible given certain weather and wind
conditions that the sound of a sonic boom might travel some distance.
"However,
that would not explain vibrations people reported experiencing,"
Mr Dudley said.
Relieving
Moreton Island ranger Scott Rogers said he was in his office when
the whole building began to shake.
Stradbroke
Island resident Mark Davis said his TV shook and his dogs bolted
when the plane flew over his home yesterday at Point Lookout yesterday.
"The
dogs were sitting on the loungeroom floor and they freaked, jumped
up and took off out the door," Mr Davis said.
Bongaree resident
Darren Jellick said he felt an "enormous shudder and heard
a loud bang" while working at Bribie Island. "It was
the sort of sound you hear when a military bomb blows up,"
he said.
Bribie Island's
Rod Bennett was shaken from sleep.
"I was
sure someone was trying to break into the house. It was a really
violent shaking of the windows, I thought they were going to break,"
Mr Bennett said.
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