O.C.’s Big Bang Theories: Just Some Flights of Fancy

Like scores of others around Orange County, Betty Morrissey was jolted out of her bed about 11 p.m. Tuesday by a violent rumbling.

“I asked my husband what was going on, and he said, ‘Unless the back hill fell off, that’s an earthquake,’ ” said Morrissey, a Laguna Hills resident. “The French doors were rattling, the windows shook.”

Morrissey wasn’t the only one wondering what was wrong. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department was swamped with 17 straight minutes of calls regarding the disturbance, mostly from residents wondering whether it was an earthquake, thunderstorm or a noisy prowler. It turned out to be three FA-18 Hornet jets en route to the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

“All the lines lit up,” Sheriff’s Lt. William Francis said. “Most people thought it was a prowler, an earthquake or thunder.”

Sheriff’s deputies were also stumped. They sent units out to investigate reports of possible break-ins, made calls to local seismographers, meteorologists and, finally, to the marine base.

“The duty commander at the control tower told us what was going on. He was taken by surprise too. They didn’t realize that it was going to have such an effect,” Francis said.

The flights were part of pilot training that the base conducts several times a year, said El Toro spokesman Arnoux Abraham Jr.

“We have the regular carrier training operations, and they’re conducted at night. . . . It’s possible that the weather conditions [Tuesday night] with the cloud cover and showers could amplify the jet noise. . . . Those are pretty large aircraft,” he said.

Residents in areas from Tustin to Laguna Hills to the mountains felt the Hornets stir.

In San Clemente, the windows of Wayne Eggleston’s San Clemente bluff-top home began rattling, and he thought it was an earthquake.

“My cat, the Fuzz, tore out of the living room and ran under the bed,” Eggleston said.

Francis, who was off-duty at the time of the trembling, said the commotion also got his attention.

“I thought it might be a prowler, so I just went and checked it out. No one was there. The house shook and I thought it must be an earthquake,” said Francis, who found nothing and went back to bed.

Would that others had done the same.

“A lot of these were an unnecessary use of a 911 line,” Sheriff’s Lt. Hector Rivera said of the many phone calls. “There was no emergency. People were asking us to confirm whether or not there had been an earthquake. That’s what your radio or TV is for.”

Correspondent Susan Deemer contributed to this report.