The booming sound that rattled several homes on the west side of the city Sunday afternoon remains an unsolved mystery as police continue to look at what caused the incident that still has social media buzzing.
RELATED: Big boom remains a mystery
Hamilton Police Sgt. Brian Robinson said there were no reports of injuries or accidents, and none of the businesses in the area had reported any fires or explosions.
“I don’t believe there will be an explanation for the ‘mysterious boom,’” he explained to the Journal-News. “The boom is what is referred to as a ‘Seneca Gun’ and is a phenomenon that has been happening for over a century and scientists still can’t fully explain it, so we aren’t gong to concentrate time and resources on it and are continuing our focus on police related issues while the scientists continue working on finding explanations for phenomenon such as these.”
Military training exercises in the area were definitely not one of the causes, nor were reports of gunfire or bombs accurate Robinson said, adding, “some of the things being reported were just impossible and could not have happened.”
An explosion at the River Metals Recycling on Licking Pike in Newport, Kentucky happened the same weekend and it was reported that the mystery was solved.
Not quite Robinson noted, because the explosion happened at a different day and time.
One theory was that the boom could have been caused by military planes conducting training exercises in the area.
Ohio Air National Guard fighter jets from the 180th Fighter Wing’s F-16 Fighting Falcons have been conducting training exercises close to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, but Staff Sgt. Shane Hughes, a spokesman for the Toledo-based unit, said it wasn’t a wayward F-16 that caused the boom.
MORE: Military not responsible for boom.
“You wouldn’t believe it, but I have been asked that question several times,” Hughes told the Journal-News. “But it wasn’t any of our jets that caused that.”
Darin Hubble, public affairs superintendent at the 122nd Fighter Wing Base in Fort Wayne, Ind., said there were no operations being held in the area on Sunday.
“Plus, we don’t fly any aircraft that would cause a sonic boom,” he said.
The fun with the mystery boom has even entered the UFO landscape.
“People think the military is hiding something,” Robinson said with a laugh. “We had to have some fun with this and just called it an X-File like the old television show with characters Moulder and Scully.”
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