31 January 2021, 1100++ am – What was that?? Something did happen and we, at least not me, cannot just move on without explanation. Is there anyone investigating though? There has been no official statement or press release to appease the public about this mysterious happening, or at least said that it is being investigated.

Living at the top floor of our building, my windows and glass balcony doors rattle all the time when its windy outside, during heavy rains. But today, the rattling sounded different, felt different. From the sound of it, the rattling sounded faster, like more vibrations per second than the regular rattling during windy days. It was so different that I stopped right in the middle of my living room, mouth agape. I looked out the glass balcony, it was clear and sunny outside, no rain, no leaves flying. So right then I dismissed the sound that I heard as thunder. Instead, the first thing that came to my mind to explain the sound was a super heavy vehicle, like a heavy military tank could be passing by. I don’t recall feeling the floor under my feet shaking, perhaps because I was too focused on bracing myself to what would come next. It was like that scene in monster movies like Godzilla and Jurassic Park where the water in the cup vibrates suggesting something so enormous is thumping its way.

The rattling stopped after about 10 seconds. There was no monster, no military tank. Then, it came to me. I encountered the same situation before that felt exactly like this, not in Brunei, but when I was in Honolulu. It was a sonic boom!

I dare to say that only a tiny number of the country’s public who know about sonic booms, or fighter jets for that matter. Brunei is the only country in the region which does not have or have not had fighter jets. Apart from during the now defunct BRIDEX, there is no way for the wider Brunei population to see fighter jets “in person” and be familiarised with their might and prowess in the sky. Therefore, the possibility of the mysterious loud booms originating from a supersonic aircraft would not even register in their minds.