BRADFORD, Vt. -
Not many people knew what the loud boom was that rattled stores and homes Thursday.
But the Massachusetts Air National Guard had to take the blame. One of their jets broke the sound barrier.
"I heard a boom," North of the Falls store clerk Barbara Kulzyk said.
"It sounded like ten elephants or something had landed on the roof," Copeland Furniture saleswoman Sierra Breault said.
"I haven't heard anything like that in a long time," Richard Simmons said while filling up his truck with gas.
People all over the state border near Bradford had to take a guess at what shook the world around them.
"It literally moved the whole building," Breault said.
Then people start asking questions.
"There was a host of calls," Bradford police chief Jeff Stiegler said.
"People just inquiring what the big bang was so to speak."
But all you had to do to find out was look up
"They were leaving trails in the sky. It was pretty blue, a nice sunny day and it turned out sure enough that's what it was," Kulzyk said.
The big bang was an F-15 fighter jet from the Massachusetts Air National Guard of the 104th Fighter Wing. It broke the sound barrier, traveling near seven hundred mph and creating a sonic boom.
"The boom was not appropriate it made a lot of people nervous," Kulzyk said.
And Kulzyk is right. The Massachusetts Air National Guard shouldn't have broken the sound barrier in the area.
In a statement they released they said "We will continue to work hard to prepare our pilots to fulfill our mission of air superiority, and our commitment to the community's safety is always paramount, never intending to cause undue concern."
But the loud noise still left many on edge.
"There was nothing like it for sure," Breault said.
