VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A sound that only could be described as a loud boom shook neighborhoods across Hampton Roads and left just about everyone wondering: “What was that?”
Virginia Beach resident Wendy Chaln sent 13News Now a video of her husband and daughter trying to figure out what happened.
"What the heck was that?" her husband can be heard asking moments after the boom sounded and their home rattled.
“They heard a very loud boom and a shake so strongly they thought maybe a truck had hit the house,” Chaln said. “It was definitely shocking. Of course, everyone’s thoughts were, 'What’s going on outside our home? Is the military doing some sort of exercise?'”
Residents said the sound was so loud it shook their homes and sent pictures and mirrors crashing to the ground.
One man claimed cracks on his porch opened wider because of the sound.
Chesapeake resident Belinda Cavusao said she lived through an earthquake in the Philippines back in 1991. What she experienced Monday was eerily familiar.
“It felt a little bit like that or a volcanic quake that we had in ‘91,” Cavusao said. “I was so scared. I stood up and the dogs were freaking out. I was looking at my husband saying, What was that?”
The U.S. Navy said Tuesday that an F/A-18 Super Hornet caused a sonic boom.
Cmdr. Dave Hecht, public affairs officer for Commander, Naval Air Force Atlantic, told 13News Now:
Based on an analysis of data by Fleet Area Control and Surveillance Facility Virginia Capes and Strike Fighter Wing Atlantic, we can conclusively state the loud noise heard across Hampton Roads at approximately 6:30 p.m. on Monday, April 29 was a sonic boom generated by a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet based at NAS Oceana. The aircraft was conducting routine training over the Atlantic Ocean approximately 32 miles off the coast.
Earlier in the day Tuesday, the National Weather Service said it was a sonic boom, caused by a jet. Low-lying clouds Monday amplified the sounds.
“It was a sonic boom that was basically reverberated or ducked back towards the coast as a result of the low cloud cover we had yesterday,” said Mike Montefusco of the NWS.