If there was no reason to worry, questions from residents of the three departments arose following these strange noises of explosions.
The canvas shakes to the sound of a loud “boom”
On Twitter, an Internet user from Yonne expressed concern by writing that her house had started to shake with a resounding “boom”, specifying that this same noise had also resounded near the town of ‘Auxerre. “Should I urgently open the right bottles?” She concludes in her post.
Apparently this was not an isolated case. Another resident of Montargis (Loiret) explains that her house also shook, while another from Troyes (Aube) declared that her windows had moved. More fear than harm in the end: given the messages and feedback, no damage inside or outside the houses is to be deplored.
Two Rafales planes returning to their base
In addition, a post on its X account, the Prefecture of Yonne has reassured the most worried: “The prefecture informs you that passages of Air Force planes in the airspace of Yonne have caused strong detonations”, expressly asking Internet users not to congest the emergency lines.
More precisely, it was two Rafales planes which broke the sound barrier when reaching their base according to the prefect of Centre-Val de Loire and Loiret, as relayed by Le Parisien. The Rafale, one of the flagships of French aviation, is in fact equipped with SNECMA M88 engines which allow it to reach Mach 1.8 at altitude, or 1912 km/h, and therefore to exceed the sound barrier (1200 km/h).
A sound that follows the machine
As Espace des Sciences points out, “sound travels through the air at approximately 340 meters per second, or 1,200 kilometers per hour. When the plane flies, it compresses the air around it. When reaching the speed of sound, this compression is such that a shock wave is produced, causing the large “boom” that is so characteristic. This noise will follow the plane, but like “the plane goes faster than sound… it is no longer where we hear it”.
The Rafale thus ensures missions of air superiority and defense, ground support, deep strike, reconnaissance, anti-ship strike and even nuclear deterrence. It was put into service in 2002, and was ordered by India, Qatar, Egypt, etc.
