GALVESTON COUNTY — James Goodson is trying to solve a mystery. He is trying to find out what went “boom” Sunday afternoon and shook his Dickinson home.
Goodson isn’t alone. County residents from League City to Texas City to Jamaica Beach report hearing what sounded like a series of short explosions during the weekend.
The sounds so worried some that the Texas City office of homeland security launched its own inquiry.
“We started getting calls about 8 a.m. (Sunday),” George Fuller, the assistant coordinator for homeland security in Texas City, said. “We called all the plants, the Coast Guard, tried calling Ellington Field and can’t find where they came from.”
Fuller said there were no industrial incidents that occurred in Texas City. There was a report of an incident in Deer Park that day, but it was minor and did not involve an explosion — especially one that could have been heard multiple times as far south as Galveston.
Shauna Dunlap, the media liaison for the FBI, said her agency had no reports of any unusual activity and said there were no drills or training exercises involving explosives taking place during the weekend. The FBI did rattle some nerves in Texas City recently when a training course on improvised explosive devices at the city’s shooting range included a demonstration of the power of an IED.
That blast came without warning and rattled windows up and down Bay Street in North Texas City.
Even the Texas Office of the U.S. Geological Survey — the folks who measure for earthquakes and other seismic activity — said there had been no recorded seismic events along the Gulf Coast this weekend.
So what went boom? What could have shook homes from League City to Galveston’s beaches?
Goodson doesn’t know what made the booms, but he does know they came from above.
“I can tell you to the exact minute ... I heard them,” he said, reporting that the first boom he heard was at 4:14 p.m. Sunday.
Goodson heard back-to-back booms at 5:12 p.m. and 5:14 p.m. as well.
Goodson described the booms as short, low-pitched bursts lasting only a few seconds. He descriptions were consistent with reports from others who contacted The Daily News.
Given those descriptions, the most plausible explanation would appear to be the sonic boom made by a jet when it crosses the sound barrier. With Ellington Field close by, it wouldn’t be the first time jet fighters would have been blamed for creating a stir.
Several people, including members of The Daily News staff, reported seeing as many as four jet fighters in the air Sunday jetting south from Clear Lake toward Galveston.
Col. Lanny McNeely, the commander of the 147th Fighter Wing based at Ellington Field, said not to blame his pilots. All of the Air National Guard’s planes were on the ground Sunday, he said.
That doesn’t mean there were no jet fighters in the air, however.
“We have military jets fly into Ellington all the time, but they don’t go through or are associated with the 147th,” McNeely said.
But if any visiting jets were in the area, the folks who run Ellington Field weren’t aware of it.
Marlene McClinton, a spokeswoman for the Houston Airport System, said checks into the mysterious booms came up empty. A supervisor at Ellington Field Sunday reported no unusual activity or visits from out of area military jets, she said.
Dunlap said the region’s Joint Terrorism Task Force also had no indication of any military maneuvers planned for the area. The task force usually has information on any flight patterns that may draw attention and issues warnings to local emergency management officials.
The Daily News even made calls to Air Force bases in San Antonio with hopes of confirming if any jets from Lackland Air Force Base may have been in the area. Jets from that base will primarily be responsible for the air patrols of this region once when the 147th Fighter Wing’s F-16s are retired as part of a defense department realignment.
Calls to the Lackland public affairs office were not returned Tuesday afternoon.
