Every so often, the sky falls. Or rather, huge chunks of ice drop from the sky, often damaging homes or cars. Usually, the ice is thought to have fallen off an airplane's struts and tail. Occasionally, the ice has a chemical smell or, worse, the odor of human waste, suggesting a leaky lavatory wastewater tank. In other cases, investigators have posited that the chunks are "ice meteorites" or massive hailstones. Fortean Times presents a casebook of contemporary ice falls. From FT:
A group of friends were drinking outside the Kilton Inn in Worksop on the evening of 9 August 2009 when they heard a loud smash. Wesley Chesters, who lives nearby, was narrowly missed by the 30cm square chunk.
Dawn Rennie, another Worksop resident, added: "We were just so lucky. We were so close to being killed when we were just sitting outside a pub quietly. Things like this just should not happen. Aeroplanes shouldn't be ejecting things over Eastgate."
A frozen condom was embedded in one of the blocks – proof it had fallen from a plane. A spokesman from the CAA said: "leaks from toilet systems can occur if there is a fault on the seal at the point where the hose from the collection vehicle connects with the aircraft… When ice falls are reported to the CAA, we attempt to identÂify aircraft which may have been responsible, and request its operator examine maintenÂance records to attempt to identify possible causes and repair any faulty seals."
