Paris -
An enormous boom was heard in Paris on Wednesday, causing alarm among the population, until the police announced that it was caused by a fighter jet breaking the sound barrier to go to the aid of a plane in trouble.
The noise, which shook the windows throughout the French capital and its suburbs, caused fear among the Parisians, who live under constant threat of attacks.
Comparable to an explosion, it was clearly heard during the Roland Garros tennis tournament, where Swiss player Stan Wawrinka and his German opponent Dominik Koepfer stopped playing for a few seconds to scan the sky.
"A very loud noise was heard in Paris and its region. It was not an explosion, it was a fighter jet breaking the sound barrier," Paris police wrote on their Twitter account, urging people to stop calling emergency service phone lines.
Un bruit très important à été entendu à Paris et en région parisienne. Il n'y a pas d'explosion, il s'agit d'un avion de chasse qui a franchi le mur du son.
N'encombrez pas les lignes de secours !— Préfecture de Police (@prefpolice) September 30, 2020
The Air Force later reported that the noise was caused by a Rafale fighter jet, which took off from the Saint-Diziers airbase (east) to "assist an aircraft that lost contact."
It was "authorized to break the sound barrier to reach as quickly as possible," said Stéphane Spet, spokesperson for the French Air Force, to AFP.
Breaking the sound barrier is a term used to explain what happens when an airplane travels faster than the speed of sound, which is 343.2 meters per second (in the air).
When surpassing that speed, a shockwave is produced that generates an enormous boom.
The troubled plane was an Embraer that, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC), experienced a "loss of radio frequency" while flying over western France. But communication has been "restored," added the DGAC. (I)