The Havre Police Department was inundated with hundreds of phone calls late last night after residents were awakened by a sonic boom. The boom was caused by pilots from the 120th Fighter Wing Montana Air National Guard F-15s participating in night flying operations. The operations will continue through Friday, with the final take off time at 9:30 p.m. each night and approximate flying times of 90 minutes. Training exercises occur every day, and night training is necessary to maintain pilot proficiency in the dark hours. It includes the use of night vision goggles and the enhanced radar system the jets are equipped with. The training is for pilots to perfect their "air-to-air combat capability in a night-time environment," Maj. Tim Crowe with the Montana Joint Force headquarters in Helena said this morning. Crowe extended apologies for causing concern. The Air National Guard "sincerely apologizes to the community of Havre for alarming them last night," he said. "It's not our intention to startle communities with our training operations," he added. The Guard out of Great Falls is in the final stages of switching to combat ready with F-15s from F-16s, and the conversion is expected to be complete in the next month or so, Crowe said. Once the process is complete, the 120th Fighter Wing will be prepared to respond to any deployment, he said. Pilots using the overland military operating area Havre is located under must adhere to height requirements of 18,000 feet above Havre and 30,000 feet above ground for any super sonic flight. Those limits were adhered to during last night's operations, Crowe said, but weather conditions were such that the boom was heard on the ground. For the remaining days of the exercises, sonic speed will not be reached over Havre, he added. "So there will be further restrictions on those aircraft," he said. Other than the high volume of calls, the flights caused no problems, Gabe Matosich, assistant chief of operations for the Havre police, said. Likewise, no problems were caused in the county, Sheriff Don Brostrom said. "We've heard that for years," he said about the booms.
Loud sonic boom awakens Havre
MANG F-15s will be training through Friday
Alice Campbell Havre Daily News
acampbell@havredailynews.com
acampbell@havredailynews.com
Published: Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
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Comments (16)
By PatriotVoice on May 14th, 2010 at 12:32pm
Be that as it may, K, there are SAFETY rules in place for a reason. Rules that the MANG is expected to abide by. I think they were practicing low-level bombing runs over the rail yard as it is the nearest thing to a city over the Hays MOA. No one says that we don't appreciate our freedom, but when reckless endangerment of the public is concerned...yeah, I have a problem. And YES, it was RECKLESS. Night Flight Ops are the most dangerous there are, which is specifically WHY USAF planes are RESTRICTED to certain areas. Let's not get too crazy here and let's stay focused. SAFETY of the PUBLIC was the concern here...
By K on May 12th, 2010 at 17:23pm
Really? being woke up from an F-15 doing its training is only the sound of YOUR FREEDOM. you should all be ashamed of yourselfs. The pilots put there lives at risk for you and all you can do is complain that you got woken up. The guard has a job to do and they do it well...for you. I'm sure there is nothing in writing stating that they need to inform You and Havre of there training missions. Grow up crybabies and remember your freedom. If you like it than enjoy the F-15s and what they are doing.
By PatriotVoice on May 12th, 2010 at 15:03pm
USAF Fact Sheet 96-03, Armstrong Laboratory, 1996
By PatriotVoice on May 12th, 2010 at 14:37pm
To stall any debate, just wiki the term "sonic boom". It will clearly outline the facts. In order for weather to affect a sonic boom, certain atmospheric conditions MUST be EXACTLY right. And ours were not at the time of incident. Sure, it WAS a plane flying over, but the circumstances regarding it's presence are not being reported accurately. NOT the fault of HDN here. They are being fed lies. As per usual with the new Prez and his administration. Lie to us and keep us in the dark. Wake up America...
By PatriotVoice on May 12th, 2010 at 14:20pm
The details given are not complete. This incident took place at 11 at night, was over a POPULATED area, and the risk to the general populace was obviously not accounted for. There are rules about why planes cant do this over cities. Imagine a supersonic impact to the HOSPITAL or NURSING HOME. They KNOW better even if WE don't. The TERROR that people experience lately is a result of the oversaturation of words like "terrorism" and "attack". Every one of us KNOWS something isn't right. And then we get LIED to about this. Look up "Military Operations Areas" and see where the nearest one is. Bet you didn't know about those, did ya?
By PatriotVoice on May 12th, 2010 at 14:15pm
I have been around fighters all my life until lately. The reason they are not allowed to do this over populated areas is that during supersonic flight, the risk of accident is highest. Imagine one of those F-15's having torn into the HOSPITAL at mach speed. People are alarmed when these things happen as a result of oversaturation of words like "terrorism", "attack", and so on. Being a veteran myself, my pucker factor went up. And we are NOT gettig the whole story here. That much is certain.
By Mike on May 12th, 2010 at 08:24am
Really People? Was it that big of a deal. So it woke me up for a couple minutes. Our military needs to train to keep our country safe so let them do it. As far as packing bags and leaving town, it doesn't take too long to figure out it was a sonic boom when you can hear the jets flying around. Just relax and don't be so sensitive.
By RT on May 12th, 2010 at 00:00am
I have been to an air show where they broke the sound barrier and bs they were flying low. Why lie about it. Next time they should do it in the afternoon to where we can witness instead of wiping our rears.
By Betty on May 11th, 2010 at 23:23pm
How is this the PD's fault? I am pretty sure the Guard didn't call ahead and tell the PD that there was going to be an accidental sonic boom! Please!
By Francis Carlin on May 11th, 2010 at 22:18pm
Maybe they were trying to wake me up so I could hear another CENSUS WORKER knocking on my door to harass me. Yes, I did complete the census answering all questions.
By Havre Resident on May 11th, 2010 at 22:13pm
There is no way it was that loud at 30000 feet. The pilot must have seen Top Gun as a kid and thought a low fly-over would make him a 21st century Maverick.
By matt on May 11th, 2010 at 21:45pm
I agree, that was way lower than 30k feet, my whole house shook from 2 distinct booms. Not that I really care, other than it would have been nice to know in advance that it wasn't a large explosion somewhere.
By Ember on May 11th, 2010 at 20:02pm
Well the police department could of been nice and let Havre Daily News know about this yesterday so at least some people in Havre could of been warned! Some people that lived next to us packed up there bags and headed out of town but there back now but that could of been avoided if the town of Havre got told! If there are any damages done by there Stealth Bombers we should get told a number to contact so we can get out windows ect fixed! They were flying lower then what you guys say my place shook and lifted off the foundation no joke!!!!! Havre PD nice going for letting people know about this your really nice well Thanks to Havre Daily News we are prepared for the next one tonight and tomorrow!
By Amber on May 11th, 2010 at 19:55pm
Well there should of been a notice in the paper about this alot of people didn't know what happened they packed there bags and headed out of town and they just called me today and asked if Havre was fine i told him it was just a sonic boom they had no clue what happened and them leaving Havre could of been avoided if this notice was givin the police department should have told Havre Daily News so they could post it in the paper nice going Havre PD for letting people know about this so people didn't freak out like they did! Well thank you Havre Daily for letting us know it might happen again tonight and tomorrow at least someone in this town cares!
By Angela on May 11th, 2010 at 18:56pm
There was no way that they were at even 18000 feet. Our house literaly shook, most of us have kids that were sleeping and we were affected by it. So there was a problem, I have autistic kids and had to explain to the 2 of them what that scary noise was and had to get them back to sleep. So for someone to say that there was no one "hurt" by it, is a little far fetched. I agree with the post above, that something should have been written in the paper about it, or on the radio or something.
By shawn on May 11th, 2010 at 16:18pm
No way were they flying at 30000 feet. THat should have been in the paper long before it happened. It was only partly cloudy so weather was not the issue. Someone should be in trouble. I have heard many sonic booms.THey were flyin low.
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