'US bombers make my house shake'

A woman who lives near a US Air Force (USAF) base being used for planes involved in the war with Iran says the noise of the aircraft is so loud it sometimes shakes her awake at night.

Sian Nelson, 42, lives in the village of Down Ampney, which is just a few kilometres from RAF Fairford - a base for USAF heavy bombers on the border of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.

With its long runway, the base is capable of hosting all three kinds of long-range bombers in the USAF - the B-1, B-2 and B-52 - with B-52s and B-1s both spotted since action in the Middle East began on 28 February.

Nelson said "the whole house does shake" when they fly over.

There has been increased action at RAF Fairford since the US, alongside Israel, began operations against Iran last month. On 1 March, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced the US could use bases in the UK for "defensive" strikes on Iranian missile sites.

Nelson, who describes herself as an aviation enthusiast, said she was woken by B-1 bombers flying over her house in the early hours of Tuesday.

"I literally thought I was dreaming and then I came out and I was like, oh no, that's why I was shaking in my dream, because obviously my whole house does shake [when they fly over]," she said.

A video Nelson posted on TikTok of one of the B-1s flying overhead shows the noise setting off car alarms in the street. To date, it has received more than 400,000 views.

"The first (B-1) went off and obviously by the time I got to the window, which is probably four feet away from my bed, the first one had already disappeared," she said.

"But I know they tend to go off in twos and threes, [so] I was like, right I'm going to sit here and wait for a couple of seconds, and then you could literally hear the engines before they get to you."

The bombers are particularly loud when using their afterburners, which provide up to a 50% boost in thrust by injecting fuel directly into the exhaust stream.

William Eliason, 39, a former member of the USAF now living in Oxfordshire, said: "If you're standing outside, you can actually feel it in the ground a little bit [when a B-1 flies overhead]."

"So for the folks living right underneath the flight path for both the approach and departure from Fairford, they'll definitely be feeling it pretty intensely.

"It's not going to be a fun experience if they're not used to it."

The BBC has contacted the Ministry of Defence for comment.

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