Jets diverted from Whidbey Island Naval Air Station created an unusual sight around Paine Field on Monday afternoon and evening.

Five EA-18G Growler jets were diverted from NAS Whidbey after a plane blew a tire on the air station’s runway, according to Marty Wray, operations specialist at Paine Field.

The runway at Whidbey was closed while crews dealt with the plane with the flat tire, and the Growlers needed to refuel, so they landed at Paine Field, the nearest location with the resources they needed, Wray said.

Everett resident Kathy Koss said she first heard the noise in the afternoon while she was at work at Everett Community College.

“They were extremely loud,” she said. “I’ve never heard anything like that coming out of the sky around here.”

Koss said she was pleased to have an answer to what caused the loud noises. She heard them again later in the evening from her home in the Viewridge neighborhood, not far from Paine Field, and was worried it was going to become a common occurrence.

“I am glad to hear it was a one-off thing,” she said.

Paine Field was once a U.S. Air Force base for fighter jets, but that was decades ago.

(Everett Herald article)