Real world situation 1 - What should I have done?

Apparently I don't yet have the proper mindset for survival in instant-decision situations. The following actually happened to me today and I reacted by ... doing nothing. What is the forums opinion on how best to handle the situation.

Today, I was out to lunch at a restaurant near my place of work in downtown Seattle. The restaurant is on the Seattle bay waterfront and I was eating by myself. Suddenly everyone in the restaurant hears a very load BOOM. It was strong enough to feel. This was NOT a normal sound for downtown Seattle. It didn't sound like it happened next door, but didn't sound like it happened 5 miles away either. The single BOOM was all I heard though. No alarms, no breaking glass, etc. Everyone in the restaurant looked around, then looked at each other, then ... went back to eating lunch. This included myself. And that was it. Nothing else untoward occurred.

When the BOOM did occur, I thought it was unusual, but didn't think much else. About 15-20 minutes later I finished my lunch and headed back to the office. On the way back I wondered what had caused the sound and remembered the President was in Seattle today and was probably within 10 blocks of where I was eating lunch. That would certainly raise the threat level in the area! I looked closer at my surroundings, but everything seemed to be normal on the streets.

After getting back to the office, nobody at work showed any indication of anything strange having happened. I decided to see if I could find out what the sound was and did some Internet searching. Turned out that, due to the presidential visit, airspace around Seattle had been restricted. Apparently a small private plane entered the restricted airspace and some fighter jets were dispatched from Portland, OR (about 200 miles away) to intercept. Due to the distance, the fighters went to full-afterburner and this resulted in a big sonic-boom over their flight path. (Actually there were two sonic booms reported, but I only heard one.)

So my question to all of you is: What would have been your reaction to my situation upon hearing the BOOM? Thinking back on it, sitting there simply finishing my lunch was probably the worst thing I could have done, if it had been a real emergency. On the other hand, since it was NOT a real emergency, it was probably the best thing I could have done. Remember, I had no idea what the real source of the boom was. Could have been an explosion, crash, or collapse from any number of sources (attack, nearby banks, nearby railroad, nearby harbor, nearby freeways, nearby airport, nearby construction, etc.). It could have been almost anything else as well.

I might have only had seconds to save my life by reacting properly. Instead I did ... nothing.

Possible reactions I can think of:

1. hit the floor immediately
2. hit the floor immediately and then get out your portable police scanner, ham radio, am/fm radio, etc. to get more information
3. hit the floor immediately and draw your weapon
4. draw your weapon immediately and hit the floor
5. exit the building immediately via the nearest exit and take cover
6. exit the building immediately via the front entrance and take cover
7. exit the building immediately and run for the office where you have your GHB and other preps
8. exit the building immediately by diving through the nearest window and off the dock and into the sheltering waters of the bay
9. stand-up and tell everyone else in the restaurant to get down, then take cover yourself
10. stand-up, draw your weapon, and tell everyone else in the restaurant to get down, then take cover yourself
11. alertly evaluate the situation with all your senses and with no more information, immediately pay your bill and leave
12. draw your weapon, alertly evaluate the situation with all your senses, and with no more information, immediately pay your bill and leave
13. use your years of experience with explosions, car wrecks, train wrecks, sonic booms, etc. to instantly classify the boom as harmless
14. look around, look at other people, and if nothing else happens, go back to eating lunch.

I am sure there are many other possibilities. While I personally took option 14, I think I would favor option 11. In hindsight it is easy to pick an answer, but in the real moment what do you think I should have done?

I'm in Olympia (60 miles south of Seattle) and felt them also. I was sitting at my kitchen counter and at first thought earthquake and promply got out of the kitchen area. It really rattled my house and windows. Apparently it took 911 down in at least a couple of counties due to all the calls.

Number 11
no doubt about it

I have heard quite a few sonic booms so I'd like to think I would have recognized it for what it was and remained calm. However, I heard a recording of the booms on NPR during my drive home and I must say it sounded startlingly loud.

I think that your when you say you did #14, you are doing yourself a disservice. Even though it wasn't as conscious an effort as you would like to think, you probably processed a lot of sensory inputs and then decided to stay put. That is, you did #11. You didn't hear additional noise or loud sirens, see the lights dim, a bright flash or see other signs of distress such as people running down the street -- so why panic?

wolfepack... there is a decision making paradigm for potential high threat situations called "OODA" standing for observe, orient, decide, act.....you observe a potential threat situation....you physically orient your body to the threat (quickly scan around you as to not be overcome by tunnel vision)... decide what is the best course of action... act on your decision...even if you immediately identify the sonic boom, they typically do not happen over populated areas, so something unusual is going on...although I am a texting illiterate, most people have real time intelligence link via cell phone to open source intelligence, TV, radio etc. and probably a TV monitor somewhere in the restaurant...time to gain intel at a relative secure position, then make a decision how to react to a potential threat, or time for key lime pie...I was not a combat vet in SEA, but spent time in Thailand and the Phillipines and would not set with my back to a door for several years when I returned home .. regards Les

I think you reacted well. You can't always go by what others are doing (or not doing), but without follow-up sounds or visuals, I'm glad you didn't run screaming down the street, starting a panic.

I grew up with sonic booms. I thought they were sonic booms *shrugs*, maybe aircraft from Ft. Lewis/McChord playing around. Their humongous whup-whup-whup helicopters fly over my house fairly frequently, sounding about five feet above the trees.

I guess it scared a lot of dogs, though.

Sue

One other thought occurred to me about this situation. One of goals of survival is to recognize potentially dangerous situations and avoid them to begin with. So another possible reaction:

15) call in sick to work knowing the presidential visit could severely magnify the danger of being at work.

Would anyone on these forums be that pro-active? I guess the same thing would be true if you knew a big demonstration was planned as well.

One other thing. If anyone was interested, the private plane was a non-threat and the fighters returned to their base. Apparently this type of thing happens all the time. My Internet search showed that private planes have wandered into restricted airspace and fighters have been scrambled many times, no matter who is serving as president.

I'm afraid I don't have that luxury. :\ I work in a hospital, and I'm expected to show up *especially* if something big's going down.

I think if I were in your lunchtime situation, I'd have gotten suspicious, stuffed my face with a last few bites, paid the bill, and gone back to work. The only big booms I've ever heard are from magnum rifles, thunder, dynamite, and lake ice breaking; I've never heard a sonic boom. I'd probably think a building got damaged and that the hospital would get a flood of injured victims.

As it was, I never heard anything regarding any of this over the radio or on the alert service that sends me emails, and I live near Seattle. That shows how much I need to improve at being in touch with the world.

http://www.theolympian.com/2010/08/17/1339007/lound-booms-heard-throughout-south.html

Here's the story in the Olympian. They came up from Portland, rather than coming out of McChord. Must have been really cooking when they came over Olympia.

Depends on how much you paid for the lunch. It would take a lot to pull me away from lobstertail or good seafood risotto. Seriously though, lets say you skipped dinner and hadn't eaten all day, then quickly eating your lunch might have been a good, practical decision. At the very least you could have dumped it into a bag to take with you. Can't get far on an empty stomach.

14. That said, the one time I actually heard a sonic boom I hustled back to the villa my family and I were staying in. When I arrived they accused me of knocking on the door and running away (I was maybe 13 or 14). I'd thought it was thunder, but also thought thunder in a desert was unusual. It had been a NASA SR-71 blackbird as the news later reported.

hmmm, my reaction would have been to finish lunch. If I hadn't heard sonic booms before, the only thing I'd have done is check for secondary indications. No smoke, no shaking. . . no sirens. . .

modified 11. alertly evaluate the situation with all your senses and with no more information, finish eating, it may be your last meal. . .

When you said Seattle and described the sound I immediately thought "F/A-18s out of Whidbey".

We hear sonic booms irregularly on Lake Huron from fighters heading between the training ground up north and Selfridge AFB. Over land they're rare but over open water they like to light it up.

Strange they had to scramble all the way from Oregon.

Another reason to carry cash... drop enough to cover what you ordered without question and leave.

I think that you acted correctly, without any secondary indication of anything wrong, I would have been inclined to finish my meal.

Here in London I have heard at least three terrorist bombs explode, in each case nothing would been gained by panic or running around.
I was not close enough to be injured, running around would be as likely to lead into danger as away from it.

The first bomb I heard was about 20 years ago it was 50 yards away, but was only a small one.
The next was a large vehicle bomb, I was a mile away, and saw no need for any special action.
The most recent was the one on the London undeground, near Aldgate station. I was employed in the basement of a large office building relatively near the explosion.
I was uncertain if the noise was a bomb, or a railway accident, but a deep concrete basement seemed a good place to remain.

McChord is all airlift, no combat jets afaik.
Those 'F18s" out of Whidbey are, according to Wiki, EA18's; electronic warfare jets.
The ANG out of PDX cover Central CA to the Canadian border; I see them regularly as they fly over my house when on training sorties. It's always a treat to see them take off at PDX. They put on a show.

I believe you acted correctly.

Now the decision of whether or not to go into work would be dependent upon the proximity of the heightened security requirements.

The best preparation is not to be there in the first place rather than trying to get out of something. Especially if you can avoid the situation altogether with foreknowledge.

I would've most likely done #14, too, although it's hard to imagine how the boom sounded so I think #11 could be possible, especially if I immediately remembered that the President was in town. Or let's call it #11 but without leaving. But the fact that nothing shook and you didn't feel any concussive force or hear anything else usually indicates that you aren't particularly close to any explosion and not in any immediate danger.

Actually, one could theoretically argue that leaving may not be the best choice, too, since you apparently didn't know where the sound was coming from so you could have potentially travelled into some situation. At least you were safe and unaffected right where you were.

Since those sonic booms worried so many people and clogged up the 911 dispatch center so badly, I guess they need to let the pilots of those little military jets cut loose and hit Mach 1 a little more often, so people can get used to the sound.

Call 911 to ask, "What was that sound"??? JFC! See what happens when a country has a nanny government?

If there's no debris, no dust, no fire, no alarms, and no sirens, don't get your knickers in knot.

Sue

+1.

And while remaining assertive and calm in that position, you might as well enjoy that hearty lunch of yours....

You can't react to every foreign noise to your surroundings. Without any environmental indicators like sirens, smoke, screaming, car screeching, or follow up noises that last for several seconds like the roar of a building collapsing, or gun play all you can do is get PREPARED to move.

You don't know where to move, or how to move but you get ready to move by making sure you can do so quickly. Reason #1 for having a EDC within arms reach if not on you.

The preferred response is to immediately scream "incoming" at the top of your lungs, quickly dip you fingers into your water glass and then into the ashtray, shoulder roll behind the potted plants, smear your face with the ashes, pull your weapon, and while maintaining your very best bug-eyed and throbbing-vein expression shout that "Charlie is in the wire" and scan the room with your sidearm. Lacking a firearm hold a butter knife in an aggressive stance. A large soup spoon is a good option and adds a bit of comedy relief.

I'm always leery about the whole survival mindset riff. Those who have it don't focus on it. Those who worry about it don't have it. Most people who worry about it avoid the clear. calm awareness needed and instead adopt some macho BS like: 'have a plan to kill everyone you meet'. Or some form of generalized hyper-alertness and nervousness that usually guarantees they are half exhausted before any emergency rolls around. Those are not a survival mindsets. They are paranoia and psychopathology disguised as preparedness. It is also a very fine way of wearing yourself down, alienating people who might help you, and a long-term strategy for dying alone.

I think you did well enough but quite frankly I would sit back and enjoy my meal. If you were part of a planned emergency response and had reason to think something might be going on you might phone the dispatcher and make sure they have your cellphone number in case they need people.

A single explosion is not much to go on. A truck driving over a sealed two-liter plastic bottle makes a noise like a shotgun going off. A transformer going bad typically has a 60 cycle growl often followed shortly by a rather impressive explosion. Living in Florida we got sonic booms every time the shuttle landed. Typically a double boom like two deep thunderclaps. The military also provides the occasional sonic boom.

Seattle is below a mountain that will some day make a very large boom. But jumping up based on a single distant explosion and clearly inadequate information is a waste of effort. I suspect the urge to jump up and 'do something' indicates you are too nervous and need to unwind a bit. Big emergencies develop over time, those that don't have no effective response, and the world will let you know when you need to act.

There is no need to 'strain at gnats' or jump at every loud noise. Save your energy for things that matter.

LOL! Thanks, Art, I needed that.

In my part of the world, with active oilfields all around, a boom doesn't make me think of hostile activity. It makes me wonder if a pressure vessel or train car has popped. So my first reaction, sans smoke or sirens, is to note the wind direction. Just in case my lunch is about to be spiced with a cloud of H2S or ammonia.

Thanks everyone for your replies to my "unknown BOOM" situation. I am glad to know that fewer Rambo's exist (or at least post) then I sometimes imagine. A summary of what I got out of the responses was:

No need to take any large action until you have enough information to know what action is appropriate. However being more alert and actively seeking more information would help you determine the correct action.

Most people were in agreement that of the reaction options I provided, the following was the best, given the limited information available.

11. alertly evaluate the situation with all your senses and with no more information, immediately pay your bill and leave

However there was some discussion on leaving immediately or staying until time or more information determined it was safe to leave.

Other information I thought was useful:

Additional indicators of problems -
Does the building you are in still have power?
Does your cell phone still have signal?
Are people outside your immediate surroundings acting strangely?

Additional sources of information -
TV's that exist in many businesses.
Radio's that play background music in many businesses.
Cell phone (tweets, web, text messages, etc.).
Someone who just came INTO the building.

Things to do -
Go into a heightened (but not necessarily hyper) state of alertness.
Watch the actions of people inside AND outside the building.
Re-check where all visible exits are. Not just the closest.
Put cash on the table to cover your meal. You can then leave quickly if necessary. You can always pick it back up and pay via a different method if nothing further develops.

Miscellaneous -
Note the time. You will then KNOW, instead of GUESSING, how long it has been since whatever caught your attention occurred.
Drawing a weapon will likely make YOU the bad guy in a situation where nobody is sure what is going on.
Don't rush to leave. If the building you are in is unaffected, then you may be safer inside the building than outside.

Finally -
If you take precipitate action (throwing yourself on the floor, fleeing the building, drawing a weapon), this will likely cause reactions in those around you as well. You may be thinking clearly, but if your actions cause others to panic, you may be responsible for changing a minor incident into a situation that gets you or others severely injured or even killed.

Thanks again everyone, I am working on becoming a better survivor and situational awareness is one of my weaknesses. This kind of discussion helps me determine boundaries on what is too little and what might be too much.

The absurdity of the whole situation fairly negates any rational act. Restricting airspace because the POTUS is in the area? Really??? Gimme a break!

Used to be a full wing of f-15s at McChord. Nice to know that the only response to an airborn threat in the greater Seattle Tacoma area has to count on Fighters from Portland scrambling and doing a full burn. I bet by the time the fighters got into the threat zone, the errant civilian plane was already past the point where a strike would've occurred.

Stupid. My response at hearing the sonic boom and the subsequent report, laugh my A$$ off!

I heard both booms - they sounded just like sonic booms alright. I was sitting on the outside deck at Ray's Boathouse on Shilshole Bay with my wife. We enjoyed the rest of our meal, paid and went across the street to go over our wills with our estate planner. If the booms had been something more dire, I can't think of a better place to be than on the sun deck at Ray's. Or planning your will.

Great topic, Wolfepack. It reconfirms that I really should carry a small radio with me when out and about. I got an iPod Nano with built-in FM radio fro Christmas but it usually just sits on my desk.

I'm not sure how I would have responded. I would like to think my response would be somewhat based on what I knew of my surroundings. If I were downtown away from any chemical plants or refineries I would have probably headed indoors into a store or something for a bit. If I didn't see anyone running in terror I would assume it was safe to go back to whatever I was doing.

-Blast

The fact that a couple of sonic booms caused the 911 system to be overwhelmed with calls surprises me.

I wonder how many of the people that called or attempted to call 911 had enough (or thought they had enough) detail to even allow the police/fire to investigate. Calling 911 to say that you (and half of town) heard a loud noise but you have no idea where it came from or what caused it probably is not very helpful. I wonder if any campaigns are being discussed to educate the public on when they should apply some sort of filter to their thought process before calling 911.

In a perfect world, option 1 with a variation. Delay for a second as I reach for my EDC bag, then hit the floor and make sure my people were with me down there if there is anything that in the first second or so doesn't look that 100% normal. Then begin sizing up information.

However, I've spent most of my life under or near military flight lines- sonic booms are sonic booms. I have hit the deck for other explosiony-noises, but there were two recently returned Gaurdsmen in the room the last time. We all got silly looks, and they looked at me like "who are you, you don't look like one of us". (Big belly, long hair, working on a ZZ Top beard. I don't look deployable as anything other than a paperweight. Or a really, really cranky budda.)

EDIT: LOL @ Susan.

Isn't the fact that the 911 call center was overwhelmed the most concerning, but least surprising, part of this story?

Imagine trying to get through if you're the 263rd caller after a region wide event of life-threatening importance.

Like the rest of us, and virtually all of our institutions, 911 centers don't do "surge" all that well; they don't have several dozen under-utilized call center employees sitting around watching TV waiting to to be needed, nor necessarily even the number of phone lines to handle to the volume in such an event.

I haven't' seen reported what the call-center's response to callers was; or when the call-center became aware that the noise was a sonic boom. Did NORAD notify the call-center when the F-15s were scrambled and authorized to go afterburner? If not routinely communicated, it would have been a kindness to all concerned.

What surprised me about the story was that the two F15s went supersonic (Mach 1.2-1.3) in the first place as they would have to had to have made a visual IFF interception against a slow small moving low altitude float plane quicker if they had flown the profile subsonic. The supersonic pass over Seattle made very little sense if they were indeed meant to intercepting a slow moving low altitude target especially as the F15s would have very little loiter time due to low fuel reserves.

Weird story.

As I understand the story, the F-15s were supersonic prior to reaching Seattle (over Olympia), not over Seattle. Being supersonic would make sense because they were trying to reach the violator in the shortest amount of time. They can then rapidly slow to get in position to VID the target. I'm sure they were able to ID him using airborne radar and then position to VID him, if that was required. As I recall, the aircraft in question was a nonissue by the time the F-15s arrived anyway.

As the F15 would have been flying on a north south bearing and as supersonic booms always trail the aircraft I think we can assume that the F15s flew past down town Seattle supersonically and most likely at altitudes > 20,000 ft. (The aircraft weren't really observed making the pass overhead)

Although F15s are very capable I have not really heard of a F15 exceeding Mach 1.5 and very rarely exceeding Mach 1.3 operationally. With external tanks and weapons supersonic flight would most likely have occurred at altitude i.e greater than 20,000 feet. The time differences going supersonic over a range of 150-200 miles at altitude to a low level subsonic flight plan would have been pretty negligible, after taking into account climb to height times and greater acceleration and deceleration times to eventually match the very slow level level target, i.e drop back down to a couple of thousand feet and 120 mph, which the F15s might have had to escort (the F15s would have had great difficulty maintaining the same speed as the float plane).



Again this make the supersonic flight over Seattle even more of a mystery. Even the F15s airborne RADAR probably wouldn't have been picked up the float plane until the F15 was within about 35-40 miles radius, by which time the float plane had apparently already landed or would have left the exclusion zone to make his landing approach.

Anyway getting back to the point of the thread, I would have personally been a little more concerned than other folks have stated hearing the sonic boom knowing that the PONUS was in town. Supersonic overland jet fighters usually mean a serious immediate war threat i.e. something like a Tu140 barrelling along somewhere nearby.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8585432.stm

First codified by John Boyd - read either of his biographies sometime and this

http://www.goalsys.com/books/documents/DESTRUCTION_AND_CREATION.pdf

I always wondered why they scramble the fighters on potential threats rather then escorting Air Force One with fighters in the first place.

Drawing your weapon because of a noise is not smart at all. Unless that noise is a gunshot in the next room over, or some other noise indicating an immediate and close proximity threat that is potentially handleable using a gun (a ceiling collapsing from heavy snow load would not qualify). One, you would endanger others, and two, you would look like a complete idiot.

If I were in a restaurant, heard a loud boom, and then somebody stood up, drew a gun, and shouted "everybody get down!" I'd probably draw my own firearm and shoot the guy thinking he was attempting an armed robbery. I would certainly do my best to determine the guys intent before considering firing my own gun, but my initial thought process would be that he was a significant threat - an armed criminal.

Always, always, ALWAYS assess your surroundings. Unless there is an IMMEDIATE threat, you have time to figure it out. I have never heard a sonic boom-chances are, if I ever do, I will likely jump out of my skin . But, as others have said, you sort of look for secondary indicators, and assess based on that; smoke, fire, building collapse, care wreck, whatever. For all we know, they could be building a bridge, and blasting rock (I know, they use blast blankets, etc...just trying to illustrate a point). The biggest thing is, remain calm, and take in your surroundings. Assess the situation, and base your course of action on whats going on. To be honest, I wouldve done the same thing you did; nothing. Once I observed that there was no danger, I would assume whatever the noise was, is now someone else's problem.

Air Force One was parked at the airport at the time of the event.

11.5: Take a peak outside, make sure nothing is on fire, finish your meal and turn on the radio.

-john

'i found a great iphone app for the radio. its 'Oo Tunes". I got it to listen to stations that were not on iheartradio and found out that it has police/fire/emt scanning for several different cities including my own.

meaning you could list the channel as a favorite and if you have cell service you could listen in very quickly.

I hope to God that you don't have a ccw permit!. Drawing the gun with no reason is a misdemeanor, called "brandishing a weapon", and it will get your permit jerked. If you point the gun at anyone, it's a FELONY, called "aggravated assault", and gets you 3-8 years in prison, and you lose your gun rights. Do not go pulling your gun without an imminent threat being present! a loud noise might be a bomb, but your pistol will be of no help if that is the case.