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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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