Is sonic boom dangerous for your health ?

A sonic boom is a thunder-like sound a person on the ground hears when an aircraft or other type of aerospace vehicle flies overhead faster than the speed of sound, or “supersonic.”

Air reacts like fluid to supersonic objects. As those objects travel through the air, molecules are pushed aside with great force and this forms a shock wave, much like a boat creates a wake in water. The bigger and heavier the aircraft, the more air it displaces.

How Far this sound can be heard or felt ?

Sonic booms can be felt hundreds of miles away. Planes flying from as far away as 100 miles have caused rumbling to be felt at far away places. The width of the boom ‘carpet’ beneath the aircraft is about one mile for each 1,000 feet of altitude.

What are the effects of a sonic boom?

People with heart ailments can get shock of the sudden loud sound created by Sonic booms. It can invoke feelings of fear. Such intrusions disrupt sleep, rest and relaxation, and also interfere with communications.

Kids can have more effect as they are not aware of scientific facts and may be disturbed for longer period.

Can a sonic boom kill you ?

High-intensity ultrasonic sound (generally anything above 20KHz) can cause physical damage.

The general consensus is that a loud enough sound could cause an air embolism in your lungs, which then travels to your heart and might kills you. There is high chances that your lungs might simply burst from the increased air pressure. …

What Sound frequency can kill you?

If you‘re exposed to 177 dB sound waves at 0.5 to 8 Hz, it can start messing with your lungs, making your breathing erratic and literally shaking your bones around. Short-term exposure can damage your joints, but the effects of chronic exposure can include nausea and visual impairment [source: Horowitz].

Is a sonic boom illegal?

Supersonic aviation is not allowed on land unless in times of war or special shows that too only for fighter planes. This is because supersonic objects compress the sound waves to insanely high pressures creating shock waves that are pretty loud even for objects as far as the flying planes from land. 

Within the United States, it is illegal to break the sound barrier. … Breaking the sound barrier leads to a sonic boom. And regulators have determined that people need to be protected from sonic booms. 

Why are sonic booms so loud?

A sonic boom is a loud sound kind of like an explosion It’s caused by shock waves created by any object that travels through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms create huge amounts of sound energy. When an object moves through the air, it makes pressure waves in front of and behind it.

Can Sonic Booms crack windows, damage building ?

Unmitigated sonic booms can cause windows or old plaster to crack, but for civil applications this is extremely rare. The intensity of a sonic boom can be measured in pounds per square foot (psf) of air pressure. Buildings in good condition can withstand shockwaves up to 11 psf without experiencing damage. The Concorde’s boom produced less than 2 psf, which posed a minor risk to historical structures and structures with existing compromises, but not more than natural weather events. A low boom SST would, by definition, produce a significantly softer shockwave than even this.

The myth that sonic booms easily cause building damage likely dates back to an infamous series of tests conducted in 1964 under FAA supervision wherein supersonic fighter jets flew over Oklahoma City eight times a day for six months. In the end 73% of surveyed residents said they could tolerate the booms indefinitely. Nonetheless, the U.S. government received over 15,000 complaints and nearly 5000 damage claims. When most were rejected as spurious it fueled a public-relations disaster for the FAA and supersonic overland more generally.

Source ; http://www.supersonicmyths.com/supersonic-myths

How to protect yourself from Sonic Boom

check out this PDF for Protection for Infrasonic and
Ultrasonic Noise Exposure

Conclusion : I don’t believe a sonic boom contains enough energy to kill a person even at close range; what’s going to kill you is more likely the energy from the source of the sonic boom rather than the sonic boom itself such as lightning (of which thunder is the sonic boom) or explosions.