Strange Jet/s noise over Sunderland tonight.

[George Ford]

Hi,

Its is 18:25 here in Sunderland in the UK. For the last 35 minutes there has been a constant coming and going noise of some huge sounding jets.

It is either very low flying commercial jets, like stupidly and illegally low or military jets, but it does not quite sound like normal airliners. The only noise I have heard like it was when an Avro Vulcan ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Vulcan ) flew past on its way to last summers air show, the thing makes a 'ripping' noise as it blasts through the air and I am hearing the same ripping noise. Also whatever it is sounds like it is moving relatively slow, not as quick as a jet fighter. I doubt it is the Vulcan as it is not based round here and there are no air shows and if it is then why would it be going back and forth?

The only commercial airport is many miles away and the planes you see going to or from that are at a very high altitude, you can barely see the plane and hardly hear the noise. Also there is some cloud cover but I can see plenty of sky and there is no rain or winds.

My best guess at position would be very near the A19 as it passes through Sunderland. Maybe something has gone wrong and they are trying to navigate by following the motor way?

Any ideas?

[Mr.United_Nations]

Training of some sort, I am not sure why is this unexplained when you know what it is? i guess training

[TheVeryFirstDinosaur]

Training at a low altitude over civilian grounds? Lol.

[George Ford]

Update:-

The other time I heard this noise (it's still happening every few minutes by the way, and my mother who lives 4 miles juts called to ask if I knew what was going on) was just before UK military intervened in Libya in 2011. We could well be moving troops, support personal and ammo etc somewhere? Don't see anything on news though.

-EDIT-

I found a football site and people are reporting hearing jets all over the North East, including Durham, Peterlee, Houghton etc. http://www.readytogo...eterlee.827551/

Military jets don't to training over Sunderland and have not done for several years.

_EDIT_

19:28 now and it's been dead silent for about 10 minutes. So I guess they have gone now.

Edited October 24, 2013 by bulveye

[Star of the Sea]

Keeps us updated Bulveye... wonder what's going on

[Space Commander Travis]

There are large training areas up near the Borders, aren't there, around Keilder Forest way, maybe they're en route to or from there. Or over the North Sea, I think they do training over that way too.

[Mr.United_Nations]

Training at a low altitude over civilian grounds? Lol.

does not have to be low?

[George Ford]

Well, there has been nothing else since about 19:45 (ish).

They were most likely military planes and were most likely re-grouping somewhere else.

It is possible there were doing training exercises but highly unlikely as they were stopped being allowed to over built up residential areas several years ago.

There was enough time between peak sound that there may have only been 2-3 aircraft and they were circling around.

If I hear or see anything else related to this then I will update this thread.

[Eldorado]

Aliens. They were gonna invade but after looking at Sunderland opted for a weekend at Blackpool instead.

[Crabby Kitten]

There's been a few reports of "jet" noises being heard in places around the countryside recently. Usually during the night or even after 1a.m.