Sonic boom heard but not seen in Bay

13th September 2006

MANDY SMITH

A suspected meteor was heard and felt throughout Hawke's Bay yesterday but won't be recorded because nobody saw it. An Elsthorpe woman said she was outside at 9.03am when she heard two loud booms.

"I felt the shockwave on my chest and in the air," she said.

"I had my radio headphones on, but I could still hear it." A neighbour said it "sounded like dynamite being blown up at a distance. Then there was a strange vibration in the air".

Waipukurau community constable Julieann Treseder said her husband was working inland from Blackhead in Central Hawke's Bay when he heard a boom over the noise of his four-wheel motorbike.

A Carter Observatory spokeman said there were no reported meteor sightings in the region yesterday but Hawke's Bay Astronomical Society president Gary Sparks would not rule out the possibility.

"We did have one over here a few weeks ago so chances are there's a swarm or stream passing through." * Boom shakes south - Page 8