Anyone else in Bern hear a very loud bang and a rumble at around 2.15 pm? It rattled all of our windows and made a few people jump and it didn't come from our building for a change. Couldn't tell if it was a sonic boom or what, but it puzzled us a bit. I've seen the odd F-18 over Bern (including one that did a barrel roll over the city...).

I also heard and was scary but still dont know what was that?..

Maybe the reason for a power outage, but it happened past 3am.

Yeah, I heard it, it shook my windows! It came west of the Langgasse, perhaps from the industrial area? It came in two waves first air pressure, then more of a sound wave..

Is there a online local news source?

thats interesting. i wonder what it was.

No-one on the east side of the building heard it. Definitely left of the Langasse, and as Muze said, pressure wave then a rumble.
Also no-one here knows anything about it. I'd still put my money on an F-18 pilot being a bit silly...

I heard a big bang as well, but it was in the afternoon. I live in the Mattenhof quartier by Meinen Metzgerei. Anyone hear that one?? --- It was yesterday, right?

Yep - 2.15 pm is in the afternoon unless they do things very differently here.
It must have only been audiable to Auslanders as none of the Swissies I've spoken to have a clue of what I'm on about. Maybe the SVP is testing some sort of Auslander bomb that depopulates the Johnny Foreigners and leaves the Swiss still standing.
Dangerous times, these.

Rocky & Bullwinkel anyone ?

Ah, I was thinking more the Peter Sellers / David Niven 'Casino Royale'...
That's a messed-up film.

Look out in the press in the coming days for the following

But seriously, how can a sonic boom cause my steel shutters to move 10cm back and forth? It is not like the Inselspital is a F16 take off site

Usually when they accelerate, they try to avoid populated areas. But if they do it over a populated area, combined with the fact that they point the nose all the way up, the inhabitants get the full benefit of the shockwave.

If done properly, windows can break, not only shake

sonic booms are cool.

but i never knowingly heard one.

Used to get them a lot in the Navy, Crabfats used to give us unannounced fly-bys at bridge level ....

Captain to PWO .... acquisition radar on ....

This is strange, because I was talking to a friend on the phone at the time, he heard the bang first in Ausserholligen, said to me, "did you hear that?" and at that moment, I heard a bang and the windows of the office building where I work, in Galgenfeld (by Rosengarten), shook!
He thought the bang was in Ausserholligen but Länggasse is quite close. I've been checking the papers but haven't seen anything as yet. Has anyone found out what it was?

Hi,

I feel sorry for all of you being so scared but to me that sounds so cool. I wish I was there. I heard it was like a plane then something exploded and there was a big noise.

I use to hear Concordes boom as it passed over the Channel Islands from CDG to Ny <sigh>

I think scared is the wrong word. Anything that can distract from the immense boredom of fitting magnetic data can only be welcomed.

I'm from California originally and used to hear sonic booms when the space shuttle landed at Andrews Airforce Base in the Eighties. It certainly was a Sonic Boom. Many other people heard it and told me it was most likely Swiss Airforce planes.