Enigmatic bang shakes Göttingen's southern town - police investigated!

Enigmatic bang shakes Göttingen's southern town - police investigated!

In the night of Tuesday, the Göttingen Südstadt was shaken by a loud bang, which around 2:10 p.m. many residents tore from sleep. The noises were described as "Lauter Rumms", whereby many people suspected that it could be a detonation. A police spokesman, André Baumann, confirmed the incident and informed about the commitment of the police who went back to a caller from Lotzestrasse. This reported that the noise came from the direction of the ice meadow. Despite intensive investigations in the area, there was no evidence of a specific cause of the bang. Many speculations, including the theory of a fireworks body, remained uncovered. No further striking noises were reported on the rest of the night, which only reinforced the puzzles around the origin of the bang.

Even if the cause of the noise in Göttingen is still unclear, there are parallels to similar incidents that occurred in the region. Nwzonline reported on an overview of a Eurofighter, which flew over Oldenburg on November 28th at 3 p.m. and also caused a bang that could be heard far. This happened during an exercise to refuel a transport aircraft and led to the Eurofighter speed of up to 1289 km/h. Similar gnalls were even heard near Göttingen, due to a tornado jet who was traveling at 1365 km/h.

rules for overhaul flights and aircraft noise

The Bundeswehr is bound to strict regulations when it comes to military flight operations. While overhaul flights are allowed from Monday to Friday between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., various minimum heights have to be observed: for example, combat aircraft have to fly over cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants at a height of at least 600 meters in order to keep the noise pollution for residents as low as possible. The airspace is reserved beforehand for current overflow flights, and the flight path must be planned in such a way that densely populated areas are avoided. In the case of vibrations that arise from the overs sound bang, these are pressure blows that can spread under cone behind the sound source, whereby the cone width can be up to 80 kilometers.

The topic of aircraft noise is not only a problem for the residents, but also for the aviation industry itself. In order to minimize the health effects of increased noise, German air traffic management invests in sound insulation measures. Between 1975 and 2022, over 1.15 billion euros were invested in passive soundproofing measures that consist of supporting campaigns in order to make the noise more bearable for citizens.

More about the current events can be found on Göttinger Tageblatt and nwzonline can be found and further information about noise protection and aircraft noise can be found at Bdl .