Meteorite? Airplane?

Mystery surrounding sonic boom on Mediterranean coast

The loud bang was also heard on the French island of Corsica (see picture).

(Bild: stock.adobe.com, krone.at-Grafik)

A mysterious sonic boom is currently causing puzzlement on the Mediterranean coast. At first it was thought to be an earthquake - according to experts, a meteorite or an airplane could have caused the loud noise.

The bang was heard on Thursday in Tuscany in Italy and on the French island of Corsica, among other places. The town of Campo nell'Elba on the Italian vacation island of Elba announced on Facebook that a nearby measuring station had recorded a "seismic acoustic event that was heard by everyone" at 4.30 pm.

Regional president suspected earthquake, then rowed back
According to media reports, the bang was also clearly audible in Corsica. The Tuscan regional president Eugenio Giani initially spoke of an earthquake, but later rowed back, as the Italian earthquake monitoring station did not register any tremors.

The region's geophysical institute and the University of Florence explained that according to measurements, the trigger of the tremor had moved at a speed of more than 600 kilometers per second. "A meteorite entering the atmosphere seems most likely and is consistent with the recorded data," they said.

Expert: "The most likely hypothesis is an airplane"
The daily newspaper "Corriere della Sera", on the other hand, quoted an unnamed employee of the Italian civil protection authority as saying: "An impact would have been registered by seismographs. The most likely hypothesis is still an airplane." According to the newspaper, it was not the first such bang: similar events were also reported on Elba in 2012, 2016 and 2023. The cause is still unclear.