Mysterious booms aren’t a new phenomenon at the top of the North Olympic Peninsula.
Strange concussions felt in the early 1980s were linked to ordnance explosions across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
As for the series of booms heard late April 27, a Canadian military official told Peninsula Daily News that the booms could have come from U.S. military aircraft returning from maneuvers on Vancouver Island.
“That’s possible,” said Hubert Genest, a spokesman for Joint Task Force Pacific.
However, a spokeswoman with Canadian Forces Base Comox, which hosted some aircraft for the multinational exercises that ended the day the booms were heard, said if the booms were caused by jets breaking the sound barrier, they didn’t come from Comox.
“Nothing from here made those noises because we don’t fly after 10:30 p.m.,” said Sgt. Eileen Redding, deputy public affairs officer for the 19 Wing.
“That’s just the rules.”
At about 11:30 that night, residents — mainly in Port Angeles and points west — reported hearing a series of about five booms.
Since then, the Port Angeles booms have made the rounds on the Internet, garnering theories from global warming to secret experiments by the U.S. government and top-secret military aircraft.
However, the Federal Aviation Administration — the agency that regulates U.S. airspace — did not note any booms.
Agencies that track weather and seismic phenomena also reported nothing unusual at that time.
In June 1982, Port Angeles residents reported about 10 mysterious booms.
At least some of the noises were traced to Bentinck Island, about 15 miles directly across the Strait from Port Angeles.
On the island, Canadian Forces were detonating old munitions.