Quiet Please: French Jet's Sonic Boom Shakes Paris, Disrupts Tennis

A picture taken on June 4, 2018, from the observatory deck of the Montparnasse Tower in Paris, shows a view of the Eiffel Tower and the Défense business district in the background. (AFP)
A picture taken on June 4, 2018, from the observatory deck of the Montparnasse Tower in Paris, shows a view of the Eiffel Tower and the Défense business district in the background. (AFP)
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Quiet Please: French Jet's Sonic Boom Shakes Paris, Disrupts Tennis

A picture taken on June 4, 2018, from the observatory deck of the Montparnasse Tower in Paris, shows a view of the Eiffel Tower and the Défense business district in the background. (AFP)
A picture taken on June 4, 2018, from the observatory deck of the Montparnasse Tower in Paris, shows a view of the Eiffel Tower and the Défense business district in the background. (AFP)

A French fighter jet broke the sound barrier on Wednesday as it scrambled to join a commercial jet that had lost contact with air traffic control, causing a sonic boom that reverberated through Paris and its suburbs, the defense ministry said.

The boom rattled windows, scattered startled birds, briefly interrupted tennis at the French Open and prompted a flood of calls to emergency services.

In a city already tense after a knife attack outside the former offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Friday, the blast sent people on to their balconies to see what had caused it and prompted intense messaging on social media.

“A Rafale (warplane) based at Saint-Dizier, intervening to assist an airline which had lost contact, was allowed to break the sound barrier to join the airplane in trouble. It broke the sound barrier east of Paris,” army spokesman colonel Stephane Spet said in a statement.

He added that a seconds after the boom - which happened at an altitude of 10 km and was magnified by cloud cover - the passenger jet, an Embraer 145, reestablished contact with air traffic control.

France’s DGAC civil aviation authority said the warplane was dispatched after contact was lost with two civil aircraft.

It said that one was a Falcon 50, operated by a private Brazilian company, on a flight between Cape Verde and Brussels. The other was an Embraer 145, operated by regional airline Amelia, on a flight between the French cities of Brives and Saint-Brieuc.

DGAC said communication with both aircraft had been restored, adding that it would launch an inquiry into why contact had been lost.



ICC Concerned About Hungary's Decision to Withdraw from the Court

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands at the end of a press conference following bilateral talks on April 3, 2025 in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo by Attila KISBENEDEK / AFP)
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands at the end of a press conference following bilateral talks on April 3, 2025 in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo by Attila KISBENEDEK / AFP)
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ICC Concerned About Hungary's Decision to Withdraw from the Court

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands at the end of a press conference following bilateral talks on April 3, 2025 in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo by Attila KISBENEDEK / AFP)
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands at the end of a press conference following bilateral talks on April 3, 2025 in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo by Attila KISBENEDEK / AFP)

The presidency of the International Criminal Court on Thursday expressed concern about Hungary's decision to withdraw from the court.
In a letter to Hungary it urged the country to continue to be a resolute party to the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC.

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the country would withdraw completely from the court on the same day Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, indicted by the ICC, visited Budapest.

Orban gave the Israeli leader a welcome with full military honors in Budapest’s Castle District. The two close allies stood side by side as a military band played and an elaborate procession of soldiers on horseback and carrying swords and bayoneted rifles marched by.

As the ceremony unfolded, Orban’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, released a brief statement saying that “the government will initiate the withdrawal procedure” for leaving the court, which could take a year or more to complete.

Orban later said that he believes the ICC is “a political court.”
The ICC, based in The Hague, Netherlands, said when issuing its warrant that there was reason to believe Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had committed crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza.