Lancaster County residents jolted by loud boom

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LANCASTER COUNTY, S.C. — Some residents in Lancaster County said they were jolted Thursday night after a loud boom shook their homes.

The county’s 911 center got some calls between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. about the disruptive noise.

“The first time it shook the house and knocked a couple pictures off the wall,” said resident April McGriff, who lives in Lancaster on Hillside Street.

She said she heard three more booms shortly after that.

“My kids come running out the room asking what it was,” she told Channel 9′s Tina Terry. “We went out and the neighbor was across the street. Everybody was trying to figure out what it was.”

About a half-mile away near Memorial Park Road, Felicia Duncan said she heard the same loud noises.

“It shook our house and the dogs. They just went crazy,” Duncan said.

Some people on Facebook speculated that it was from military jets from Shaw Air Force Base doing training exercises.

“I have confirmed that we were flying between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Dec 14, 2023,” a spokesman said in an email. “It was standard night flying, which prepares airmen for tasks they may face during real-world combat operations.”

The spokesman didn’t confirm that jets were what Lancaster residents heard but said he would look into it further.

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