MA jet breaks sound barrier over VT, NH

WESTFIELD, Mass. (AP) - A Massachusetts Air National Guard fighter jet flying a routine training mission over the New Hampshire-Vermont border has inadvertently broken the sound barrier.

The National Guard says the pilot of the F-15C Eagle was completing qualification training in a controlled military airspace Thursday morning when he flew at just under 700 mph at 20,000 feet above sea level.  The area isn't among those designated by the Air Force for supersonic flights.

Residents of the Vermont city of Bradford and the New Hampshire communities of Lyme and Orford may have heard the resulting sonic boom.

Dispatchers at the Hanover, N.H., police department, who take calls for 23 towns, tell the Valley News of Lebanon, N.H., that they received 15 calls related to the sonic boom.

The National Guard says it didn't intend to cause undue concern.