Sonic boom panic?

[alexpgp]

Last Tuesday, F-15s scrambled from Portland, Oregon to intercept a small plane whose pilot now very likely wishes he had read the day's Notices to Airmen, which announced the location of a 30-mile "no fly" zone (established because of a visit by the President) he had flown into. The planes requested and were granted permission to fly at supersonic speed to expedite getting to where they needed to be. This created sonic booms.

The resulting volume of calls to the Pierce County 911 dispatch center apparently overloaded the system's 30 lines.

An online article in The News Tribune notes that:

[...] the system jammed up when thousands of scared or curious people across the region dialed 911 to find out what caused the booms. Emergency communications officials wish folks wouldn’t do that.

The article concentrated pretty much on the mechanics of the emergency response system infrastructure. I'm thinking the focus is likely mislaid.

I'm thinking what needs tuning is the level of public knowledge, if that's the right word. If an emergency response system can be brought to its knees because people are curious about loud noises, no amount of infrastructure is going to help. That some number of people were calling because they had been scared by what amounts to thunderclaps in broad daylight is also suggestive of a population that needs a bit more exposure to the world, in my opinion.

I like to think this sort of thing wouldn't happen where I live, but one never knows, does one?

Cheers...

Comments

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I really do think people are in general more fearful. But I can't imagine calling 911 over that. Isn't that what 311 is for? Or perhaps just calling your friend or getting on the internet?

[daphnis.livejournal.com]

Well, dear heart, when the telly is full of Armageddon-ish scenarios, the print media drool over murderers, explosions, home invasions and other such 'hate' crimes, AND all sorts of strange disasters are occurring around the globe, it's normal to be the tiniest bit worried that Our Time has come to an end. People are not necessarily inherently brave, you know, and being mostly disconnected from community by way of tech miracles, we're not in touch with anything REAL.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

People have become amazingly timid; I can't help but thinking they are, to some extent, being trained to it by the media.

We have an ongoing billboard campaign here, with humorous examples of what is NOT, honest to Pete folks, NOT really an emergency, and the proper number to call for these non-emergencies. It may make a few people think.

I grew up in a town in southern Missouri which was between Scott AFB and Whiteman AFB. In the 1960s, at that. I am pretty much indifferent to sonic booms as a result.

Yes, I was involved, too, but I didn't call 911!

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

Curiously, we were traveling through Seattle that day and noticed a complete blockage on the freeway. (And humorously to us, the freeway with the very same name, "the Five," as the one that goes through our neck of the woods.) As we traveled further through the city we again noticed the freeway at a complete stop. We dropped our passenger at the airport and contemplated the best way to re-travel back through Seattle so as to avoid I-5 and its traffic jams. It was only later, when we saw a newspaper and saw an article about Obama visiting, that I put 2 and 2 together and realized that the fwy had been stopped because of his visit. Think of the snarl his visits engender: sonic booms, blocked freeways, and who knows what else.