Sometimes C-17 transports stage out of Andrews AFB. They are loud, and that noise is long lasting.
Did it sound like that, or did it have a sharper, faster tone like an F-16 since they are Fighting Falcons based at Andrews?
Nothing to be alarmed about...Probably just barry, moochelle or bite-me taking another joyride on AirForce 1....
Did You Hear the Fighter Jets Last Night?
http://www.arlnow.com/2011/04/14/did-you-hear-the-fighter-jets-last-night/
NORAD conducted an air defense exercise over the Washington area late last night, startling area night owls who aren’t used to the sounds of fighter jets streaking across the sky at 1:00 a.m.
Although NORAD regularly conducts exercises in the D.C. region, for some reason this one seemed louder than others. On Twitter, we heard from Bethesda, McLean and Arlington residents who all heard the jets and wondered what was going on.
The exercise was actually scheduled for the night before, according to a press release, but was delayed a day due to inclement weather.
Check the control tower records. I suspect Colonel Jessup may have had something to do with this.
Moochie and Jill Biden leaving for Denver to attend the baseball game there showing support for the troops?
All it takes is for a private plane to wander into the protective airspace around the President to trigger alert birds to scramble. It was August of last year during Obama’s fundraiser in Seattle where a pilot flying a float plane wandered into the massive protective airspace that triggered two F-15s from Portland to scramble and at super sonic speed and fly to Seattle to intercept the plane. What surprised me about that incident is the plane never got close to Obama. He was 10 miles away when he triggered the alert, which had me pondering, how much protective airspace does any President really need?
Fighter jets scramble; sonic booms rattle Puget Sound area
A pair of loud sonic booms heard around the Seattle area shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday were caused by two F-15 jets, pursuing a seaplane that entered restricted airspace.
Two loud sonic booms heard throughout the Seattle area Tuesday afternoon were caused by a pair of F-15 jets pursuing a seaplane that breached a 10-mile restricted zone around the president’s Air Force One.
The jets were sent off at 1:38 p.m. from the 142nd Oregon Air National Guard Wing in Portland, said spokeswoman Maj. Melinda Lapore. Fighter planes are on alert around the clock there to defend the Northwest coast from Canada to Northern California, she said.
At the time, President Obama’s plane was parked at Boeing Field during his tour of Seattle on Tuesday, which included a stop at an eatery, the Westin Hotel and one other fundraiser.
excerpt…
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012647005_sonicbooms18m.html
It was a NORAD exercise. It had been postponed from the previous night because of the rain.
Alert DC sends out notices.
Maybe they were just trying to wake up the Air Traffic Controllers at Reagan Nat’l
Just seeing if anyone is awake in the tower.
Getting ready to rumble with The Sharks?
There have been a lot of strange goings on. Up here in central New York, there have been large “convoys” of cargo planes going over in middle of the night, fighter jets at odd hours (there aren’t supposed to be any, only drones in our area) etc. We have been here 15 years and something definately different going on. On the way to work, I know a convoy had been down the state route because there was a tank broken down by the side of the road. It was a rather funny “picture”, one soldier was looking at the front, another was standing behind it using his cell phone. Other than that they were all alone. Finally one TV station had to post that a giant cargo plane (one of the biggest- forgot the model) had landed at our airport as part of a HUGE emergency response drill - just in case anyone saw THAT one that passed during daylight hours. It was full of military personnel. Never heard a dang thing more about it. I guess it wasn’t such a large drill that it needed any more than one sentence of coverage.
Reporters were too busy having sex with Whitehouse and Congressional staffers to care about reporting the event.
They’re scrambling jets? I know the Democrats want to cut the defense budget, but I draw the line on poor people eating jets.
Occasionally as part of ongoing training, night time sorties are scheduled. These can be “no notice” alerts or simply missions pre planned and known in advance by the crews.