FAA finds no records of flights that could have caused sonic boom in central Alabama

CHILTON COUNTY, Al.
 A review of air traffic records by the Federal Aviation Administration today found no records of any flights Tuesday afternoon that could have caused a sonic boom in central Alabama.
Some have speculated that a sonic boom could have been the cause of the loud sound that rattled walls across Chilton County and in parts of Bibb County Tuesday afternoon.
More than 100 calls about the incident were received by Chilton County 911 about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.
FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said if there was a sonic boom, it would have had to have been caused by a military aircraft because no civilian plane flies fast enough to cause one.
A spokesman for Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery said none of the aircraft that fly out of there travel fast enough to cause a sonic boom. A spokesman for the Alabama Air National Guard said today he would look into the report, but no information had been provided as of this afternoon.
It wouldn't be the first time a sonic boom has rattled walls and windows in Alabama.
Residents in Choctaw, Washington and Clarke counties reported a loud sonic boom in Feb. 2010 as three jets from the Pensacola Naval Air Station flew through the area.
In 2009, aircraft from a base in Tennessee broke the sound barrier and caused loud booms heard by many Madison County residents.
In 1995, police dispatchers in Pelham sent officers out looking for the source of the noise after getting calls from concerned residents. That noise was later determined to have been caused by a landing of Discovery space shuttle.