No Explanation For Loud BOOM Heard In George Area Tuesday Evening

George, Iowa — KIWA has been receiving listener reports today (Wednesday) about a loud boom sound that startled residents in and around George about 8:30 last (Tuesday) night.

One George resident we talked to described it as sounding like a shotgun going off, something very heavy being dropped, or even like an electrical transformer exploding.

KIWA talked to Lyon County Sheriff Stewart Vander Stoep who said he had asked his deputies who were working at the time, and they reported they had not only not heard the boom, but had not received any questions or complaints from folks in the George area.

We checked the electrical transformer angle, and were able to find no power outages in the George area beginning at that time.

KIWA reached out to the 114th Fighter Wing of the South Dakota Air National Guard to find out if there were any of their F-16 fighter jets had been running training missions over northwest Iowa, and may have gone supersonic, creating a sonic boom. A spokesman for the 114th told us that none of the unit’s aircraft were flying Tuesday night. He added that even when they do fly, they are not permitted to go supersonic to avoid the surprise of a sonic boom for residents under their flight path.

After exhausting the various explanations we could think of, it would appear that Tuesday night’s loud boom near George will remain under the heading of “Unsolved Mystery”, unless, or until, someone comes forward with more information.

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