Ohio National Guard nighttime exercises over southern Wayne County startle residents
Lockheed Martin F16 fighter jet performing a low pass, fly over Thessaloniki city, the second largest in Greece on March 25, 2020. On Tuesday, a pilot of another F-16 jet died after his plane crashed during a routine training mission. (Photo by Nicol
(FOX 2) - Ohio Air National Guard nighttime training exercises this week startled some southern Wayne County residents who weren't ready for the loud noises that come with passing fighter jets.
While the 180th Fighter Wing announced on its Facebook on this Monday that it would be conducting night flying April 11-14, residents who weren't aware sounded off on the post.
"It would have been nice if we had a warning here in southern Wayne County Michigan. People are a little freaked out with everything going on in the world," read one comment.
"My family was scared as well and didn’t know what was happening," said another.
In response, the 180th Fighter Wing said it tries to let people know ahead of time through social media and news outlets, "but not everyone gets the message."
"The best way to find out about these is to follow our social media pages, where we usually post about it beforehand, and share it with your friends," read the reply.
The 180th Fighter Wing said that it was unable to guarantee any specific flight path the jets might take since they don't release specific training locations ahead of time.
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The training locations and flight paths can also vary depending on the weather.
The jets that were flying were F-16s. The reason for the exercise taking place at night is so crews "stay ready for any world-wide contingency."
"F-16s are pretty loud, but if it's cloudy, the sound can bounce around more and seem even louder than it actually is."