{"id":38301,"date":"2023-06-06T22:45:07","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T22:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/06\/06\/when-are-jets-allowed-to-go-boom-aka-break-the-sound-barrier\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:14:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:14:20","slug":"when-are-jets-allowed-to-go-boom-aka-break-the-sound-barrier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2023\/06\/06\/when-are-jets-allowed-to-go-boom-aka-break-the-sound-barrier\/","title":{"rendered":"When are jets allowed to go \u2018boom,\u2019 AKA, break the sound barrier?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Washington-area residents were startled Sunday afternoon when a D.C. Air National Guard F-16 fighter jet went supersonic in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2023\/06\/04\/f-16-jet-scrambled-to-respond-to-unresponsive-small-plane-over-capital\/\" target=\"_blank\">pursuit of an unresponsive Cessna business plane<\/a>, letting loose a sonic boom that echoed across Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. military routinely trains near the national capital region, practicing to intercept wayward aircraft and other threats along the East Coast. But those jets rarely break the sound barrier over land unless they face a real-world emergency, to prevent panic among unsuspecting residents on the ground and damage to the community around them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Military pilots don\u2019t need to zip around at supersonic speeds all the time; for instance, F-35A Lightning II pilots cruise around .9 Mach, or around 700 miles per hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Going faster than the speed of sound \u2014 around 760 miles per hour \u2014 helps pilots fire weapons smoothly in air-to-air combat training, such as those simulating offensive counter-air missions, said Heather Penney, a former F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot who now works as a defense policy expert at the Air and Space Forces Association\u2019s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Penney said they are allowed to break the sound barrier in a limited number of scenarios: over the ocean or on a training range where it won\u2019t disrupt everyday life, or in an emergency with a superior\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And<b> <\/b>it comes in handy when a pilot needs to catch up with an out-of-place or unresponsive aircraft, so they have more time alongside the plane to assess whether it is a threat or not,<b> <\/b>Penney said. Most often, she said,<b> <\/b>people simply get lost or don\u2019t know where they\u2019re allowed to fly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">John Kirby on Sunday&#39;s NORAD intercept: &quot;Six F-16s from three different air bases&#8230;launched to intercept this particular Cessna Citation&#8230;the two from Andrews&#8230;they had to turn on the speed to get to him, which is why people here in the District area heard a sonic boom&#8230;&quot; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0PKiqikPAk\">pic.twitter.com\/0PKiqikPAk<\/a><\/p>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/cspan\/status\/1665792185890115585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 5, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Sunday, the New York-bound Cessna Citation business jet suddenly turned around over Long Island, prompting the military to scramble six fighter jets to intercept it. Its civilian pilot appeared to be slumped over and unresponsive, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/virginia-plane-crash-victims-sonic-boom-8ae61275a56d4b5b64b03047f7f9d84c\" target=\"_blank\">U.S. officials told the Associated Press <\/a>of their conversations with the fighter pilots. The officials were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the military operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesman John Ingle told Military Times this week that one F-16 that responded to the unresponsive Cessna made the jump to supersonic speed, though three others were also authorized to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two F-16s tasked to NORAD\u2019s homeland defense mission flew alongside the Cessna over Virginia around 3:20 p.m., the Pentagon said. Military Times staff heard the sonic boom echo over Washington roughly ten minutes earlier. It\u2019s unclear at what point the jets sped up to catch the unresponsive plane, or how long they escorted it; Ingle said NORAD is still establishing the timeline of events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The go-ahead to exceed Mach 1 comes from the U.S.-focused branch of NORAD, which is responsible for monitoring and defending the continent\u2019s skies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNORAD aircraft typically fly at speeds slower than those required to create a sonic boom. However, that could change depending on the mission and the need to respond in such a manner to provide decision-makers the necessary time to act,\u201d Ingle said. \u201cNORAD aircraft often operate within specified parameters when over land so as to mitigate sonic boom disturbances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On top of considering where a sonic boom might reverberate the strongest, officials have to consider the threat level, the atmospheric conditions and how high the jet is flying before approving supersonic flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once a jet breaks the sound barrier, the sonic boom fans out like the wake behind a boat. As with a boat\u2019s wake, the compressed air of a sonic boom is strongest near the jet and gets weaker as it fans out behind the aircraft. That\u2019s why people closer to the F-16 heard and felt its roar more intensely than those farther away, Penney said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And the jet pilots don\u2019t feel a sonic boom from the cockpit, just as passengers on a boat don\u2019t feel the effects of the wake behind them, she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NORAD doesn\u2019t alert other agencies that those shockwaves may be coming because of the unpredictability of military responses and the urgency of situations that would require supersonic flight, Ingle said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That leaves local and federal government agencies, meteorologists, journalists and more to rule out other possible explanations, like routine explosions on a military installation, thunder or an attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In general, Penney said, fighter pilots aren\u2019t supposed to fly that fast near Washington, D.C., at all, to protect the multitude of government buildings and avoid unnecessary alarm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The wayward plane ultimately crashed near the George Washington National Forest in Virginia, about 160 miles southwest of Washington, shortly after 3:30 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating Sunday\u2019s crash, which killed the pilot and three passengers. North Carolina resident <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/06\/04\/us\/sonic-boom-washington-dc-maryland.html\" target=\"_blank\">John Rumpel, the plane\u2019s owner, told The New York Times that his daughter, 2-year-old granddaughter and a nanny <\/a>were on the flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Penney said the military\u2019s decision to go fast and inspect the plane in question, rather than jumping to conclusions and shooting down a jet with civilians aboard, shows the nation\u2019s air defenses are working properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe point of our air defense systems is to protect our national infrastructure &#8230; not to get trigger-happy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One F-16 Fighting Falcon that responded to the unresponsive Cessna made the jump to supersonic speed, though three others were also authorized to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":72137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[22,12,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3381],"class_list":["post-38301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disaster","category-news","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"4XIKVIQUPBGDFEISHZK72JQYEA","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-air-force\/2023\/06\/06\/when-are-jets-allowed-to-go-boom-aka-break-the-sound-barrier\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>When are jets allowed to go \u2018boom,\u2019 AKA, break the sound barrier? - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One F-16 Fighting Falcon that responded to the unresponsive Cessna made the jump to supersonic speed, though three others were also authorized to do so.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When are jets allowed to go \u2018boom,\u2019 AKA, break the sound barrier?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One F-16 Fighting Falcon that responded to the unresponsive Cessna made the jump to supersonic speed, though three others were also authorized to do so.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2023\/06\/06\/when-are-jets-allowed-to-go-boom-aka-break-the-sound-barrier\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Navy Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-06T22:45:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-07T21:14:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rachel S. 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