"People scared, phones rammed", says radio presenter

Sonic boom
Sonic boom Photo: PA

A radio presenter has told ITV Central News that a loud bang heard across parts of the Midlands yesterday evening left people scared – and his station’s phone lines “rammed”.

The big bang was the result of a sonic boom, which the Ministry of Defence has confirmed was caused by two Typhoon aircraft responding to an emergency.

The RAF jets were scrambled after a small civilian helicopter emitted a signal on a frequency normally reserved for emergencies only.

Such a signal could indicate the aircraft had been hijacked or had "gone rogue".

John Dalziel told ITV Central News: "I think people were scared. It's not a noise you hear every day. I was at home at the time. The door shook and I thought may be some work was being done or a neighbour dropped something big or it was a crash or something.You really couldn't gauge actually what this sound was.

"The level of response was crazy. Texts shot in. The phones were rammed yesterday. People wanted to know what the bang was, if the rumours that were going round were true.”