Around 10.30 am on Thursday morning, residents of Tiruppur town, Dharapuram and Palladam areas in Tiruppur district were alarmed by a sudden loud sound heard from the sky, that led to panic among some. As people started speculating about what the sound could be, Tiruppur Collector Vijayakarthikeyan tweeted that the loud noise was most likely caused by a supersonic aircraft. He further asked people to not spread rumours.
Twenty-nine-year-old Naratajan who works as a marketing personnel at a dying factory in Tiruppur tells TNM that when the sound was first heard, he thought perhaps the boiler in his factory had burst. “That was how it sounded. We immediately ran to check and found the boiler to be functioning perfectly. We then thought that may be somewhere in the vicinity, a factory had a boiler blast,” he says over the phone.
“I have not felt it before but first there was a mild tremor, then the loud noise. You may not understand if I explain. It was a very mild sensation, like the ground beneath you shaking,” Natarajan says.
Soon, Natarajan noticed those near him receiving phone calls. “My friend’s wife called him saying she felt a vibration and asked him if it might be an earthquake. Theirs is a compound with 15-20 houses. Apparently all of them had come out as soon as they heard the sound,” he adds.
Did anyone hear the sound in the sky now? #Tiruppur
— Nikhesh (@Rabbit_Mannet) May 28, 2020
#tiruppur
— வஸ்தா (@rB4gmZ3M43CFnuW) May 28, 2020
There was a big sound hear all around tirupur @ 10.35 am..
Anonymous sound in #Tiruppur
— PiDiP (A1+) (@peedarpt) May 28, 2020
Exactly #10.35am.. Loud and intense..
The loud Sound that was heard today morning across various parts of #Tiruppur was most likely a #SonicBoom caused by a Supersonic Aircraft. Kindly do not panic or SPREAD RUMOURS !
— Vijayakarthikeyan K (@Vijaykarthikeyn) May 28, 2020
However, it was not long before the residents of Tiruppur put two and two together, and related it to a similar incident that took place in Bengaluru a few days ago. “Then people began understanding that it was something similar to what happened in Bengaluru last week. Our Collector too clarified,” Natarajan says.
On May 20, around 1.30 pm, Bengaluru residents experienced the mysterious thunderous noise. Later that evening, Ministry of Defence, Bengaluru clarified in a tweet that the loud sound was caused when a routine Indian Air Force test flight, with a supersonic profile, took off.
#Update
— PRO Bengaluru, Ministry of Defence (@Prodef_blr) May 20, 2020
It was a routine IAF Test Flight involving a supersonic profile which took off from Bluru Airport and flew in the allotted airspace well outside City limits. The aircraft was of Aircraft Systems and Testing Establishment (ASTE) @IAF_MCC @SpokespersonMoD