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Mysterious boom, light may have been F-16s

INDIANAPOLIS — Loud booms and strings of flare-like lights that brightened the sky two nights in a row over north-central Indiana may have been F-16s on training missions, an Indiana Air National Guard official said Thursday.

The booms shook houses in the Kokomo area about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, frightening residents and prompting Howard County police to search for a downed aircraft, said Larry Smith, the county’s emergency management director.

No aircraft debris was found, and Smith said he was at a loss to explain what some people speculated may have been a meteor.

But Tech Sgt. Darin Hubble with the 122nd Fighter Wing, an Indiana Air National Guard unit based at Fort Wayne International Airport about 70 miles away, said military officials are investigating if F-16 training might explain the Kokomo booms and lights and similar reports Tuesday over Logansport.

He said training often includes pilots shooting flares and can produce sonic booms that shake the ground below.

“We’re allowed to do training missions in that area and our F-16s are equipped with flares that erupt in order to evade heat-seeking missiles. They’re a deterrent,” he said.

Police switchboards in Howard and Tipton counties were inundated by calls after residents saw bright lights just before a loud sound like a sonic boom Wednesday night.

Smith’s secretary, Janice Hart, said she was lying on her bed talking to her niece when a loud explosion rocked her home.

“It just shook my house to its depths. As soon as it happened, my niece said, ‘Oh my God Aunt Janice, what was that?’ I looked out my bedroom window and my husband went to the front of the house to see what it was,” she said.

Hart, who initially thought an explosion had rocked a nearby factory, was busy Thursday morning handling calls about the noise and lights.

“That’s all they’re talking about. I had numerous calls asking if it was a sonic boom, a meteor, even some people joking that it was a UFO,” she said.

Hubble said the National Guard’s Joint Force Command in Indianapolis would release a statement Thursday afternoon on the reports. But he said the 122nd’s logs do not indicate the jets producing sonic booms Tuesday or Wednesday night. A message seeking comment was left Thursday with the Guard’s Indianapolis headquarters.

Logansport Police Chief A.J. Rozzi said he heard a loud sonic boom on Tuesday night, and then heard the sound of a jet high overheard. He said residents also reported seeing fire streaks in the sky.

He said it is common for the 122nd to conduct missions in the area and believes F-16 training almost certainly explains the sights and sounds.

“They’ve been doing that training for quite a while. I don’t know what maneuvers they’re actually doing, but they do shoot out streaks of light,” he said.

Maj. Brian Martin, a spokesman North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, said none of the thousands of manmade objects — spent rocket vehicles, satellites — that government tracks re-entered the atmosphere over the U.S. on Wednesday night.

“I’m positive nothing came in last night,” he said.