Roland-Garros: when the enormous noise of a plane passing the sound barrier disrupts matches

On Wednesday, around 12 p.m., a loud bang was heard up to the Roland-Garros stadium. The consequence of an army fighter jet that had just crossed the sound barrier.

The thud, of a loud bang, was heard in part of the Paris region. And the Porte d’Auteuil, where the second round of Roland-Garros takes place this Wednesday, was no exception. This Wednesday, around noon, some players, such as Stanislas Wawrinka and Dominik Koepfer, even momentarily stopped playing because of this very loud noise.

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Led 1-0 in the first set, and as he prepares to serve, the German jumps when the detonation sounds. Taken aback, Koepfer looks skyward then in the direction of his opponent, who remains unmoved. Koepfer again throws several glances upwards. “Is it okay, or …?” Asks Wawrinka. Reassuring, the referee signals to the two players that they can continue. Koepfer does so and the meeting resumes.

A fighter plane that broke the sound barrier

Quickly, the police headquarters explained the origin of this explosion noise. “A very important noise was heard in Paris and in the Paris region. There is no explosion, it is a fighter plane that has crossed the sound barrier ”, she reassured on her Twitter account.

Florence Parly, Minister of the Armed Forces, explained to BFMTV that the device had to pass the sound barrier in order to carry out an interception mission. “A Rafale from the operational staff of Saint-Dizier in real intervention to provide assistance to an aircraft in loss of contact was authorized to pass the sound barrier to join the aircraft in difficulty. It passed the sound barrier. ‘is Paris, “detailed Colonel Spet, spokesman for the Air Force and Space. This little mishap did not in any case distract Wawrinka, who concluded the first set 6-3.