Sonic boom over Cambridge: Watch woman’s brilliant reaction as RAF Typhoon flies past at 1,150mph

It caused houses to shake, car alarms to go off - and startled people to stop what they were doing across the Cambridge region.

A sonic boom just after 1pm on Tuesday January 13 was caused by RAF Typhoons breaking the speed limit to intercept a civilian plane that had lost communications.

The flight tracking website ADSBexchange.com recorded one of the Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 aircraft reaching a top speed of more than 1,150mph (1,000 knots) as it headed over Ickleton in South Cambridgeshire.

A sonic boom is caused when an aircraft breaks the speed of sound - 343 metres per second, or about 761mph.

People quickly took to Twitter to share their experience.

One, John Walsh, wrote: “Blew my window off its casement stay and scared the bloomin’ life out of me and the several pigeons outside!”

But perhaps the best reaction came from Heather Eastlake, who was outside and about to tackle an exercise involving a tyre and her car boot.

Heather, who describes herself as an accountant with PwC by day, and powerlifter by night, was filming the exercise just as the Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon aircraft hit their top speed.

And she showed some lightning reactions herself…

Heather later shared the video of what the exercise would have looked like - if only there hadn’t been intervention for the Royal Air Force.

Following the sonic boom, an RAF spokesman said: “The RAF can confirm Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon aircraft were launched this afternoon from RAF Coningsby to intercept a civilian aircraft that had lost communications; subsequently, communications were re-established, the aircraft was intercepted and safely escorted to Stansted. The Typhoon aircraft were authorised to transit at supersonic speed for operational reasons.”

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Huge sonic boom heard over Cambridge

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