'˜I thought it was a terrorist attack': video captures moment sonic boom sounded over Northamptonshire

The Challenger 300 D-BTLT private plane is escorted by the two Typhoon jets into Cardiff. Photo by Peter Howlett.

The jets caused concern across the county on Friday afternoon, when the large “thud” sounded above the county and physically shook a number of homes.

Within minutes people took to social media to speculate what the cause of the noise was - with many suggesting it could have been an earthquake or a gas explosion. Fire crews were even sent out to investigate.

Later it emerged two Typhoon jets had been scrambled from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire to intercept an unresponsive private jet, breaking the sound barrier somewhere above the county and creating a huge sonic boom.

Since then several pictures have emerged of the fighter jets escorting the plane.

However Amanda Drage managed to capture the sound of the boom itself.

Her and a friend happened to be making a home video of her daughter Billie-Jane enjoying a ride on her Shetland pony in Overstone when the dull thud shook the ground.

She said: “I thought it was a terrorist attack to be perfectly honest, or maybe that it could be a gas explosion.

The two Eurofighter jets escorting the private jet near Cardiff airport. Picture by Paul Clarke.

“The ground vibrated so I thought, this must be massive.”

Miss Drage and her partner William Jarvis keep horses on a small holding near Overstone Golf Course and said that all of them scattered when the noise sounded.

She can clearly be seen on the video saying “what the hell was that?” After being stopped in her tracks by the boom.

Her video has been seen a remarkable 166,0000 times on social media.

The planes over South Wales. Photograph by Hatton Willow.

She said: “Amazingly a lot of people didn’t hear it at the time, which is bizarre, it was just so loud.”

It is understood the plane was a private jet on its way to Dublin and had just one passenger.

Police, fire and ambulance crews were sent to Cardiff Airport where the Challenger 300 D-BTLT plane was brought in to land at about 4.30pm.

It is understood it had temporarily lost radio contact, and was escorted into Cardiff as a precaution only.

On Friday, a UK Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “Quick reaction alert Typhoon aircraft were launched today from RAF Coningsby to identify an unresponsive civilian aircraft.

“Communications were re-established and the aircraft has been safely escorted to Cardiff Airport.”

A sonic boom occurs when an aircraft flies faster than the speed of sound and is usually heard at around 760mph.