A mysterious series of “booms” that rocked Perth have been revealed to have been caused by Republic of Singapore Air Force fighter jets during an exercise off the coast of Western Australia.
Residents feared the deafening sounds could have been an earthquake or explosions as the city was rocked by terrifying tremors on Wednesday.
But aviation expert Geoff Thomas said the crash was actually caused by two Singapore Air Force F-15s that were training about 55 kilometres off the coast.
“By going at supersonic speed, they have broken the sound barrier and you hear a loud, sharp crack,” he said. 9News.
Perth residents reported feeling tremors and hearing a loud noise shortly after 11am AWST.
Perth Weather Live received almost 1,000 concerned reports about the incident, but Geoscience Australia was quick to reassure locals that there had been no earthquake.
‘Geoscience Australia received multiple reports of an earthquake from Perth, WA, at around 11:20am, however no seismic event was observed,’ a spokesperson said.
However, the discovery only left residents even more confused.
A series of ‘booms’ over Perth on Wednesday were caused by a pair of Singapore fighter jets
“We felt it here in Hamilton Hill, it sounded like something huge fell on our roof and there was a split-second tremor,” one woman said.
Another person said: ‘I’m in Port Kennedy, my whole house was shaking and I heard banging noises.’
A woman from south Perth reported hearing a loud ‘boom’ off the coast.
“We saw other neighbors come out onto the balcony to look for smoke or something… People felt it and heard it,” he said.
‘Where I was was quite high up and you could see all the way down the coast to Rockingham, the harbour and Kwinana.
‘It sounded like it was coming from the water and from the shore, it sounded like it could be coming from Rottnest Island.
“It was very strange. It was like a rumble that lasted for about a second. It also vibrated. It didn’t sound like an earthquake, it sounded like something had exploded, but there was no smoke.”
Matt Woods of the Perth Observatory even theorized that it could have been a meteorite that fell into the ocean off the coast of Western Australia.
Hadrien Devillepoix, a senior scientist at Curtin University’s Desert Fireball Network, argued that a fireball in the sky would have been visible if that had been the case.
“People would have seen a flash in the sky and if it had been that loud they would have seen a very bright shooting star that would have lasted a few seconds,” he said. Western Australia.
“If it’s not a meteor, it has to be some kind of explosion or sonic boom.”
He offered a possible explanation for why no fireball was seen in the sky.
Perth residents, frightened by the sounds of the boom, feared there had been an earthquake or explosion.
“If it had been a couple hundred miles away, that fireball might have gone unnoticed,” he said.
“But if it had been a distant, high-energy event, more people around Perth would have heard about it.”
The Met Office was also unable to provide further clarity on the cause of the quake before it was later revealed.
“The Office is aware of these reports but has no further information about the source,” a spokeswoman said.