Acoustic explosions during the earthquake rattle the Oregon coast. Blame it on pilot error

Three sonic booms that shook buildings and people along the central Oregon coast Tuesday afternoon were caused by a mistake made by an Oregon National Guard pilot during exercises, a military spokesman said Wednesday.

The surges occurred around 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday and shook buildings and people from Yachats to Neskowen and even inland areas like Selitz.

People who have heard or felt it took various community pages on Facebook to ask what happened and speculate – incorrect by a large margin – that the boom could be linked to a swarm of more than 160 earthquakes occurring more than 250 miles ago. out to sea.

Sgt. Steve Konkin, a spokesman for the Oregon National Guard’s 142nd Wing who is based in Portland, told YachatsNews Wednesday that the pilot error was “very unfortunate timing.”

Conkin said Air National Guard pilots train every day of the week off the coast of Oregon or in eastern Oregon. The training area extends from Naval Astoria to the southern tip of Lincoln County. F15 Eagles pilots fly single- and two-seater as part of their mission to protect the airspace from northern California to Canada.

US Air Force Colonel Todd Huford, commander of the 142nd Wing, said one of four F-15 Eagles in a training exercise was violating rules meant to prevent breaks from hitting the shoreline. He said two planes were playing the “good guys” and two “bad guys” during the exercise.

The rules call for pilots to exceed the speed of sound only if they are more than 15 miles from the coast and more than 15,000 feet and are parallel to or directed away from the coast. Huford said the pilot who caused the sonic boom was directed at a 45-degree angle toward the coast, directing the boom toward the coast.

Conklin said the Air Guard is looking at ways to prevent future errors like the one from Tuesday.

“It was a very, very unfortunate mistake,” Conklin said.

A sonic boom is a noise similar to thunder caused by an object moving faster than sound—about 750 miles per hour. When the plane’s speed exceeds the speed of sound, the pressure waves combine to form shock waves that then travel from the plane forward, according to the Department of Defense.

That was the topic of Tuesday.

Thousands of coastal residents have been watching or reading about a swarm of more than 160 small to moderate earthquakes for more than a week 250 miles west of the central Oregon coast.

The earthquakes along the Blanco fault zone were in magnitude 2.5 to 5.8 magnitude, and some people have reported to the US Geological Survey that they were felt. Several other people on Tuesday afternoon went to the site to report feeling what they thought was an earthquake – but it was actually a screeching sound.

Federal agencies have repeatedly said that the swarm – although composed of many earthquakes – was too small to cause a tsunami.

The Blanco fault zone is among the most seismically active in North America and is part of the boundary between the eastern edge of the Pacific Plate and the western edge of the Juan de Fuca Plate. Blanco is located far west of the Cascadia subduction zone and rarely results in devastating earthquakes, according to seismologists.

Hoford, who took command of the Fighter Wing this month, is an Ashland native who often spends time on the beach with his family and is always on the alert in case the sirens of a tsunami go off after a major earthquake. So he said he understood how coastal residents were concerned about the sonic boom after a week of small earthquakes.

“We screwed up,” Hofford said. “We try not to do this.”

Quinton Smith, a longtime journalist from Oregon, is the founder and editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at [email protected]

Lee J. Siegel of Beverly Beach, a former correspondent for the Associated Press, contributed to this report.

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