One witness, Kevin Scott of Huntington Beach, California, was at home working on his computer at 3:45 pm when he felt the concussive effects.

"The double boom shook the window, and in fact shook the whole house," said Scott. He is certain he wasn't alone in experiencing the phenomenon because, Scott added, "the neighbor's dogs went crazy."

Having lived adjacent to military aviation installations during his life Scott would be expected to recognize the difference between a vehicle backfire, the rumble of an earthquake or the crack of supersonic flight.

He asserts this event was more Right Stuff than wrong octane by describing the experience as "almost exactly the same as if this house were transplanted to Edwards Air Force Base."

A check of Federal and California State government websites failed to find any seismic events at a time and location that matched the event reported by Scott.

Elsewhere in the nation several news outlets report a similar booming earlier in the day in the area around Charleston, South Carolina. According to the website of WCBD-TV 2, the station's newsroom began to get phone calls from eyewitnesses around 9 am local time.

The station checked with the U.S. Geological Survey and was told it was likely a sonic boom. However, when they contacted Charleston Air Traffic Control they were told nothing was flying in the vicinity capable of making a sonic boom at the time, according to the article on the website.

A similar tale is told by the website of nearby WCIV. They cite Charleston Air Force Base as saying they knew nothing of the incident or its cause.

Back in California a second source in Orange County tells AeroSpaceNews.com that they heard a "big sonic boom… scared the cats." They added, "I went outside and, sure enough, saw a trail in the sky heading north."

We'd welcome your reports or sightings. Please join the discussion of this strange event in our aviation military forum.

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