Hum & Blast

A loud noise from a UFO shook windows in Iowa and woke people up. No jet was flying in the vicinity, so the source of the noise is a mystery. But at least the low-frequency hum that has been driving Kokomo, Indiana residents crazy for years has now been almost completely eliminated.

Massachusetts acoustics expert James Cowan traced the hum to air compressors at a nearby Haynes International plant and a roof ceiling fan at a DaimlerChrysler casting plant. This is sweet vindication for sufferers who were told it was all their imagination.

One of the noises was low in frequency and the other was just below the threshold of human hearing, meaning that many people couldn’t hear the hum, while others could sense it constantly. Those who heard it complained of nausea, headaches and insomnia. Cowan says, “For some people, the symptoms haven’t gone away. Maybe the sound is something, but it is not everything.” Cowan wants to do more research, but is not sure Kokomo will pay for additional tests.

The noise that woke up residents of Iowa City is still a mystery. In the Iowa City Press-Citizen, Gigi Wood quotes resident John Young as saying, “It woke me up out of a sound sleep. At first I thought, ‘Geez, was that a tornado?’ I’m an airplane enthusiast, and that was not right. That was not one of your executive jets.”

“I woke up shortly before 4:30 (a.m.) to the sound of what I thought was a Lear jet,” says Jeremie Moen. “We…are right under a common air-traffic pattern, so I didn’t think much of it. As it got louder and louder, it was apparent to me that it was not an ordinary private jet. I was honestly waiting for a crash when it finally started to dissipate. Unlike anything I have heard.”

“We received about 30 calls about it this morning,” says Iowa city Police Sgt. Brian Krei.

Could it have been a FedEx plane? “We watched tapes of airspace over Iowa City from 4:10 a.m. to 4:50 a.m.,” says the FAA’s Elizabeth Isham Cory. “At 4:29 a.m., a FedEx plane flew through Iowa City from a southeastern direction to the northwest. They appeared to be at a legal altitude. The FedEx plane was the only civilian aircraft to pass through Iowa City for that 40 minutes. It was either a DC 757 or 767.”

However, FedEx jets fly over the city regularly and never woke anyone up before. It could have been a military jet, since the FAA doesn’t track those. But Master Sgt. Gary Carpenter of the Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado says, “I checked with our military personnel and while it may very well have been military, it was not us.”

“My heart was beating 1,000 beats a minute,” says Jim Musser. “I just heard it get closer and closer. It was really low and really scary. I was just waiting for the crash. We rarely hear any kind of aircraft. Occasionally, we’ll hear a helicopter. But this was a big thing. It was creepy.”

This week’s Dreamland will shake you up: We have a special report by William Henry on his recent trip to Egypt. And Peter Novak has discovered the Lost Secret of Death.

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