Explosion-Like Noise Heard Across D.C. Area Was a Sonic Boom, Officials Say

A loud noise that was heard across much of the Washington, D.C., area on Sunday afternoon, including in the suburbs of Virginia and Maryland, was caused by a sonic boom from an authorized Defense Department flight, the Annapolis Office of Emergency Management said.

It was not immediately clear where the flight originated, what its purpose was or which branch of the military was operating it. “That is all the information available at this time,” the Annapolis agency said on Twitter.

A little after 3 p.m. on Sunday, people said on social media that they had heard a loud boom in Washington, D.C., and in Maryland and Northern Virginia. Many said the noise sounded like an explosion, and some said the boom was so strong that it shook their homes.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

There was another incident involving an aircraft in the vicinity of the Washington metropolitan area on Sunday, though it was not immediately clear that the two events were related.

The Federal Aviation Administration said that a Cessna Citation had “crashed into mountainous terrain in a sparsely populated area of southwest Virginia,” near Montebello, around 3:30 p.m. local time.

The aircraft took off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tenn., and was bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma, N.Y., the agency said, adding that the incident was under investigation. The condition of anyone onboard was not immediately clear.

The noise from the sonic boom startled people across the Washington area and many took to social media to speculate about what could have caused it.

Rafael Olivieri, 62, said he was at home in Annandale, Va., when he heard a “loud, very short sound” that shook his house. Mr. Olivieri ran outside, where his neighbors were also trying to figure out what had happened. “My first thing was looking to the sky,” he said. “I was really worried.”

More than 30 miles northeast in Edgewater, Md., Joseph Krygiel, 47, also felt the boom. He said he was in his basement just after 3 p.m. when the whole house shook. “It felt like something major,” Mr. Krygiel said.

Washington’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency also acknowledged the boom.

“We are aware of reports from communities throughout the National Capital Region of a loud ‘boom’ this afternoon,” the agency said on Twitter. “There is no threat at this time.”