British Aerospace Hawk

A sonic boom shocked residents as an RAF Hawk aircraft ran a "high speed drive" as part of a test flight.

It happened at about 11:45 GMT and was heard over Norwich city centre plus suburbs including Hellesdon and Bowthorpe.

People took to social media to report the "loud bang", with many describing it sounding like an "explosion" and that it made their homes "shake".

An RAF spokesman apologised for any inconvenience caused.

He said: "The sonic boom heard in East Anglia was inadvertently caused by an RAF Hawk aircraft completing a high speed dive as part of an air test schedule.

"Any inconvenience caused to local residents is regretted."

The spokesman said an aircraft was tested in "all flight regimes" after "major maintenance" to ensure it was safe.

TerryClark wrote:

netcompsys wrote:

I suspect a "meeting without tea and biscuits" might be in the pilots future.

According to Pprune, it's 'normal' to do a flight up to M=1.0 during training and routinely for airtests the UTP will dive to in excess of M=1.0, but not normally overland.
There did used to be an approved overland supersonic 'corridor' along the Bedford Levels but that went out of use when Bedford was closed as a test airfield so how come this one was over Norfolk I don't know.