A mysterious loud “boom” heard across Perth’s southern suburbs on Wednesday has been confirmed to have been a high powered Singapore Air Force jet that was flying off the coast.
Southern suburbs residents were left perplexed as to what caused a loud and mysterious “explosion” that rattled windows and spooked pets on Wednesday morning.
Thousands of comments flooded social media with reports of a loud “boom” just after 11am, with one woman telling The West Australian she felt as if the sound came from the ocean.
Emergency services said they had no reports of explosion incidents, and Geoscience Australia ruled out there had been an earthquake, as many speculated.
Some scientists even theorised a meteorite may have landed and exploded off the coast.
However, The Republic of Singapore Air Force on Thursday morning has apologised and provided answers to puzzled residents, saying their F-15 aircraft that were doing training exercises in the area are believed to be responsible for the rare event.
A spokesperson said the aircraft had been flying about 70 kilometres off the coast at around 24,000 feet in a “designated training area”.
“Initial findings indicate that the noise could have come from the training aircraft,” the statement read.
“The loud noise was unexpected as the F-15 was far out at sea.
“The RSAF appreciates the continued support of the RAAF and the local community for our training from RAAF Base Pearce.
“The RSAF apologises for any alarm that the training activity may have caused.”
The aircraft were travelling at supersonic speeds, which cracked a sonic boom.
Premier Roger Cook described the sonic boom as an “extraordinary thing” to have happened in WA.
A sonic boom happens when an aircraft travels faster than the speed of sound, which is about 1236kph, according to NASA.
“Obviously, these exercises need to take place,” Mr Cook said.
“We want to keep Western Australia safe, and in particular, HMAS Stirling, where these exercises will take place, is going to be a crucial part of our defense regime into the future.”
Thousands took to social media in the wake of the anomaly.
“We felt it here in Hamilton Hill, sounded like something massive dropped on our roof and a split-second tremor was felt,” one woman said.
Another person said: “I’m in Port Kennedy my whole house was shaking and heard bangs.”
One woman was in Perth’s south when she heard a “boom”, which appeared to originate from the coast.
“There was big boom and a massive vibration,” she said.
“We saw other neighbours going out onto balcony to look for smoke or something … People felt it and heard it.
“Where I was, I was quite high up and you can see all the way down the coast to Rockingham, the Port and Kwinana.
“It sounded like it was coming from the water and from the coastline, it sounded like it could have come from Rottnest Island.
“It was so weird. It was a boom, it lasted like a second. It vibrated as well
“It didn’t feel like an earthquake, it felt like something had exploded, but there was no smoke.”