2008-02-06 - San Jose, CA - Unknown

Roaring noise over house that started and stopped suddenly four times, appearing to originate from different directions.

My girlfriend and I were watching TV in our room at around 11:00 PM when we heard a very loud roaring that sounded much like a large rocket booster and seemed to be right above the house. We live very near the San Jose International Airport, so hearing roaring noises in the sky is not unusual. What WAS unusual, however, was the volume, behavior, and the proximity of the sound to our home.

The normal flight path of aircraft into San Jose international airport puts them a few miles east of our home. However, whatever was causing the sound seemed to be directly above our house. Furthermore, it didn’t get louder (approaching our home) and then quieter (passing over and leaving our home). Rather, it was a very loud, very steady roaring noise that sounded as if it was directly over our home.

We were lying in bed, and we both heard this roaring in the background as we were watching TV. The longer it went on without changing in pitch or volume (which would be an indication of movement towards or away from our home), the more that sort of “there’s something wrong here” alarm was going off in my head. Finally, after about three minutes of this steady roaring, we both looked at each other at the same time and vocalized our mutual curiosity as to the nature of that sound. She said, “what is that noise?”. I jokingly replied that it was probably a UFO, and she should pack her nice clothes because we might be about to take a ride. As soon as I had finished saying that, the sound stopped instantly. There was no winding down, there was no lowing of decibels, it was as if someone had just flicked a switch and turned it off.

As if that wasn’t enough, it started up again after a few seconds in what seemed to be a different part of the sky, but still very close. The start of the sound was as instantaneous as the ending. It was just suddenly “on” again. Again, there was an extremely loud, very steady roaring for about a minute, and then it stopped suddenly.

At this point my girlfriend was actually getting scared. She had lived in this area all her life and had NEVER heard anything like this before. When the roaring started a third time, I jumped through our window into the back yard (there was no screen) so I could get a better look at the night sky to try and get a visual on whatever was causing this noise. I was able to determine that the roaring seemed to be coming from the South, but was unable to see the source.

I ran over to the patio door and knocked on it to get the attention of my roommate who was playing video games at the time, and told him to come out and listen. He did, and said to me, “it’s probably just an airplane.” Then it stopped suddenly, as it had done twice before and his attitude changed. Again, it had lasted about a minute and stopped for a few seconds only to start up again this time on the NORTH side of my home. Now he was clearly as curios as I was about the origin of this sound. The rumbling/roaring sound went on for about thirty seconds or so this time before it again stopped suddenly. It did not start up again.