No, not my favourite TV programme but funny goings on down in sunny Swindon……….
At around 1820 on Thursday evening most of the population of Swindon heard an enormous bang aligned with buildings/windows shaking. I was indoors merrily working away at my PC when I heard the noise and subsequently felt the building shake – I was certain that a car had collided with the building but a quick inspection showed that all was OK .
A quick look at a few Forums and Social Media sites showed that this was widespread , not just in Swindon but in Wiltshire , Oxfordshire and even Warwickshire - most people were perplexed wondering what on earth had caused the noise.
Speculation was rife about the cause of the noise , was it :
An Earthquake ?
An Explosion ?
A Sonic Boom ?
Aliens Landing ?
Town Fans celebrating promotion to League One early ?
OK I made the last two up – Aliens would never negotiate the Magic Roundabout in Swindon and hopefully promotion to League One will be sorted in the next game or two !
Eventually the MOD “fessed up” that it was them causing the problem and that the noise was , in fact a sonic boom caused by a Typhoon fighter going supersonic to aid a helicopter in distress – subsequently shown to be a false alarm . The noise made the local and national news and even features on the front page of the BBC News site here .
But conspiracy theories still abound , why were two Typhoon jets scrambled to aid one single civilian helicopter ? , who was the pilot of the helicopter ? where were they heading ? and who else was travelling in the helicopter ?
I think we should be told…… but you can bet the two pilots were sat in an Officer’s Mess last night having a drink and a great laugh about alarming half of Wiltshire , Oxfordshire and Warwickshire !!







