Very loud noise, 4 Oct 21

[Steve]

Here I am in the south of 86 (close to Adriers), minding my own business, when I become aware of a sound, just after 10am, becoming louder. It sounded like a large jet aircraft, but at close quarters - very bassy. The sound grew in volume for a good 4-5 minutes then gradually diminished. The sound was audible for about 12-15 minutes.

At its peak, it was very loud - certainly loud enough to drown out a conversation. The direction of the sound was difficult to make out but I'd guess it was somewhere to the north-west of me.

The really odd thing was that there was only one aircraft to be seen. That, according to my flight tracking software, was a Ryanair 737 about 10 miles away, and the noise was FAR too loud to have come from that.

Did anyone else hear it? Any ideas as to what caused it?

That'll be the two Rafales that I had the pleasure of watching dog-fight over our house near Abzac. Very tight turns and some serious enging thrust being used. Impressive.

Don't forget there is a very large air training mission going on around southern/eastern France for the next week.