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Ridiculous Accidents

When my husband worked for Legal Aid years ago, he interviewed a woman who'd been hit by a giant packet of Silk Cut falling off a tobacconist's shop, pinning her to the ground. The fact that she clearly didn't find it at all amusing made him struggle all the more not to laugh.
 
Vintage tractor runs over pensioner
PA
Monday, 6 September 2010

A pensioner on a mobility scooter has been run over by a vintage tractor at a country show in Dorchester, police said.

The unattended vehicle was part of a static display at the Dorchester Showground when it started rolling down a hill, a spokesman for Dorset Police said.

It collided with the 72-year-old, from Weymouth, who became trapped under her scooter and the tractor.

She was freed by emergency services and taken to hospital with bruising to her left leg and upper left arm.

The owner of the tractor was not present at the time of the incident, officers said.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 71607.html

Tomorrow: Brand new tractor runs over toddler... ;)
 
6 September 2010 Last updated at 00:51

ELO cellist killed by hay bale in freak van Devon crash

Totnes fatal crash Mr Edwards was killed instantly when the bale crushed his van

An early member of British rock group ELO was killed when his van was crushed by a bale of hay, police said.

Cellist Mike Edwards, 62, died instantly in the accident on the A381 in Halwell, Devon, on Friday.

Police are investigating if the 600kg bale fell from a tractor on nearby farmland before rolling on to the road.

Mr Edwards was identified using photographs and YouTube footage but police are trying to contact his family to carry out a formal identification.

Officers believe the musician swerved into another vehicle as he was struck at about 1230 BST. The other driver was not hurt.
Family trace

Sgt Steve Walker, of Devon and Cornwall police traffic unit, said: "This was a tragic accident and we have now identified the victim as Michael Edwards, a founder member of ELO.

"We have used photographs and YouTube footage to identify him but we now need help contacting his family for formal identification.

"We don't believe he was ever married and we have identified an ex-girlfriend but she is currently abroad."

Officers are trying to contact a man named David in the Yorkshire area who is believed to be Mr Edwards' brother.

Mr Edwards is understood to have no immediate family but may have taught cello in Devon.

He was with the Birmingham band from 1972 to 1975.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-11195393
 
Seems to be an outbreak of vehicles terrorizing pensioners:

Inches from disaster: Lily, 85, comes face-to-face with a runaway bus... as she sits in her FRONT ROOM
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:07 AM on 6th September 2010

This is the moment an elderly widow came face-to-face with a runaway bus after it crashed into her garden and stopped just inches from her head - and she didn't hear a thing.
Lucky Lily Mulkeen, 85, was sat in her favourite chair eating porridge when the ten ton vehicle careered off the road into her property.
The Number 32 service demolished her hedge, flattened her garden and stopped just two inches from the wall of her two bed semi in Torquay, Devon.
It came to rest just outside her window where Lily, who is housebound with arthritis, was sat inside watching television and having breakfast.

Incredibly despite the carnage outside she didn't hear a thing and when her terrified carer flung open the curtains Lily was almost nose to bumper.
But despite her narrow brush with death Lily simply shrugged her shoulders - and finished her bowl of porridge.

Speaking yesterday Lily said she had been unaware of the bus until her carer Tracy Cook came running out of the kitchen.
Lily said: 'Tracy told me that a bus had crashed into the garden. I told her not to be so daft because I didn't see anything. I didn't even pull the blinds back to see.
'When Tracy took a look I was quite shocked. I was a bit shaken. But I finished my breakfast.'

Lily, whose husband Larry died ten years ago, added: 'It's such a shame because I'd got the garden looking so nice before this bus came along and spoiled it all.

etc...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0ykGm2aUM

..but this one was more serious:

Elderly coffee shop customer fighting for life after out-of-control taxi plows into popular New York cafe
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 8:59 PM on 5th September 2010

A coffee shop customer is fighting for his life today after an out-of-control cab plowed into a New York cafe early this morning.
The cab driver appeared to lose control after swerving to avoid a Jeep Cherokee that had run a red light near the corner of First Avenue and East 3rd Street just before 1.30am, witnesses said.
The SUV taxi clipped the Jeep, smashed into two bicyclists, and plowed into popular East Village coffee shop The Bean.

Customer Preston Krupin, 71, was sitting in the window of the shop. He is in fighting for his life in a New York hospital with injuries to his head, neck and hip.

The taxi driver, 49-year-old Syed Nazir, was in stable condition this afternoon, as was his passenger, a 30-year-old woman.

etc...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... z0ykIFxgNS
 
and another:

5 September 2010 Last updated at 19:38

Car crashes through pub toilet wall near Wrexham

The car ended up in the pub toilet on Saturday night

A pub landlady has told how she discovered a car embedded in the wall of the men's toilets.

Di Watson, from the Gredington Arms, in Llan y Pwll, near Wrexham, said she had been with customers on Saturday night when she heard a "massive bang".

She said: "I knew exactly what had happened. It has happened before."

The driver was taken to hospital with a suspected broken wrist. The A534 was closed overnight but has since reopened with one lane and traffic lights.

The accident happened on a bend on the A534 near Sandy Lane at Llan y Pwll.

Car crashed into Gredington Arms The car flew through the air and hit the wall of the Gredington Arms, crashing through into the gents' toilet on Saturday night

Mrs Watson said: "I was in the restaurant with customers and we heard a massive bang.

"A car with several people had gone into the wall, flown through the air and embedded itself in the gents' toilets.

“Start Quote
Rod Watson, Gredington Arms landlord

My wife came into the kitchen and said 'there's a car come straight into the gents' toilet' which I did not believe particularly at the time”

Rod Watson Landlord

"It's like something out of a film set, with part of the car sticking out and the front sticking through the wall."

The accident happened at about 2100 BST.

"I knew exactly what had happened because it's happened before. Shortly after we took over the pub we had a car crash into it."

She said she had previously asked the Highways Agency for a reduction in the speed limit on the road but had been told it was not possible.

The pub is still open after a structural engineer visited and said there was no danger.

"We're still serving even with the car lodged in in the gents' wall," she said.
'Very apologetic'

Her husband Rod said: "My wife came into the kitchen and said 'there's a car come straight into the gents toilet' which I did not believe particularly at the time.

"So I thought I'd take a look and believe me, yes.

"There were five people in the car: one chap and four girls. I think one girl had a sprained or broken wrist but the rest seemed alright.

"He was a very nice chap, very apologetic, very young.

"The car is still there and the trouble is they can't move it because it's supporting the gable end of the building. So we just have to see now what the loss adjustors, the insurance people do."

He said thankfully no-one was in the toilet at the time.

"Somebody had just come out. The main lintel across the windows the car had hit out. If somebody had been [there] he would have been killed or very seriously injured."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-nort ... s-11193455
 
Vehicles are definitely out to get us:

Man crushed by tractor in Helston
8:58am Tuesday 7th September 2010
By Emma Goodfellow »

A man has been crushed by a tractor at a farm in Helston.

The 54-year-old man suffered serious head injuries after the tractor ran over his head at Nansloe Farm.

He is believed to have stopped the tractor to open a gate when it rolled onto him, at just after 3.30pm.

The air ambulance was called and airlifted the man to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro. He was described by a police spokesman as conscious and talking, but with injuries that were potentially life-threatening and “almost certainly life-changing.”

The Health and Safety Executive have been informed.

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/83 ... n_Helston/
 
Council's £24,000 payout over Jim Rodgers 'tomato jump'

A Belfast City Council worker who was dressed as a tomato when she was injured by the then lord mayor has agreed a settlement of £24,021.75.

Lorraine Mallon suffered a slipped disc when Jim Rodgers' knee accidentally hit her head as he tried to vault over her.

Ms Mallon had been dressed as a tomato to launch a gourmet garden event in Botanic Gardens in September 2007.

A spokesperson for the council said: "We can confirm that a settlement has been made in that case."

The case was heard by Mr Justice Stephens at the High Court in Belfast, with the settlement agreed on Tuesday.

The council must also pay the costs of the action, which was brought against it on the grounds of negligence and breach of statutory duty.

After the incident, Mr Rodgers, an Ulster Unionist councillor, said he attempted the act of athleticism at the request of photographers.

"I have been absolutely devastated over what has happened," he said.
"There had been three false runs and I think Lorraine thought this was just another one.
"I just caught the top of her head and unfortunately I injured her."

Mr Rodgers said he was confident he could have made the vault.

He said: "I'm very fit and look after myself, but it was just one of those unfortunate things."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11548982
 
A topical one:

Man rescued from pumpkin machine
A man was released by firefighters after he got his leg stuck in a machine used to de-seed pumpkins, emergency services said today.
Published: 3:30PM BST 29 Oct 2010

The 28-year-old was airlifted to hospital after the incident in Binderton, near Chichester, West Sussex, but was not thought to have suffered life-threatening injuries.

A West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman said firefighters used a variety of small tools to dismantle the machine while the man was tended to by medics.

A specialist technical rescue unit was sent to the incident just before 11am yesterday and spent nearly two hours extricating the man.

The spokeswoman added: ''The machine is thought to be the only one of its kind in the country.

''It was certainly a very unusual call-out.''

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... chine.html
 
Pilot gets that sinking feeling after plane touches down - in the River Derwent
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:05 PM on 1st November 2010

It was a case of anything but plane sailing for the pilot of this light aircraft - after he apparently mistook a stretch of river for a landing strip.
The two-seater jet inexplicably touched down on a remote, 50ft-wide section of the River Derwent near the village of Aughton in East Yorkshire on Saturday afternoon.
Although the pilot may have injured his pride while earning his water wings, both he and his passenger were able to free themselves from the waterlogged wreckage unhurt.
Emergency services scrambled to the scene and the pair were airlifted to hospital as a precaution.

It is believed the pilot took off from from Sherburn Aero Club, which is about eight miles away from the crash site. But authorities remain baffled as to why the aircraft was ditched in the river.
Club director Richard Maxted told the York Press he had 'absolutely no idea what happened' to the two-seater Robin 2160.
'An aeroplane inverted in the water is not something you see every day, thank God, and at this stage we can't even specify what has happened,' he said.

The plane remained partially submerged yesterday, with just part of its tail above water. The Environment Agency has been alerted and an investigation into the incident is under way.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1475NWCLq
 
An accident for the lady below anyway, and a particularly disturbing one.

Passerby struck by falling Leeds woman

A pedestrian had a shocking experience when she was hit by the body of another woman falling to her death from a Leeds city centre multi-storey car park.
The drama unfolded at 7.25pm on Tuesday when police responded to reports of a woman having fallen from the NCP multi-storey car park on New York Street in Leeds city centre.

When police reached the scene they discovered the body of a severly injured woman who is thought to have crashed to the ground from the car park.

But they also discovered that another woman - a passer-by - had apparently been struck by the falling woman.

The second woman had suffered minor injuries to her neck and shoulder as well as shock.

The woman who fell from the car park was certified dead at the scene. The area was closed to the public by the police for three hours while a detailed exmamination was conducted.

Police said that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death and a file had been submitted to the Coroner.

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/n ... 6709247.jp
 
That's like that story I've never been able to find out the truth of, where supposedly the Eastern European woman dumped by her husband jumped off the roof of her flats in grief and landed on the husband, killing him. She survived.
 
Giant Andy Scott statue felled in roundabout crash

A giant sculpture of a striding man by public artist Andy Scott has been knocked over in a car accident.
The 4m (13ft) structure, installed at Muirside roundabout, Tullibody, in Clackmannanshire, is one of five pieces in the county by the artist.
It is understood a car crashed into the statue, which sits outside the village police station, at about 2110 GMT on Saturday.
Central Scotland Police said they were investigating the incident.

The sculpture - also known as the Man in Motion - is made of welded steel mosaic and has the Wallace Monument and Stirling Castle as a backdrop.

Brian Smith, a college lecturer who lives near the sculpture, said the impact of the crash must have been considerable.
He said: "Whoever crashed into it has made a fair mess.
"It looks like they've driven into one of the statue's legs and brought down abut five or six tonnes of metal.
"I don't know if it quite stopped them but it certainly slowed them down."

Mr Smith said the erection of the piece in 2008 split the local community.
He added: "It's quite an arresting sight when you see it lying there. I have heard from a few people that they never liked it, although I doubt they would prefer it looking like this."

Glasgow artist Andy Scott is a sculptor, whose best-known works are in galvanised steel.
His other projects include the Kelpie heads at Falkirk's Helix project and the Arria statue at Cumbernauld.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-t ... l-12443756

If the statue was 'controversial', perhaps this wasn't an accident, but art criticism! If more of Andy Scott's works are damaged, this story might belong in Conspiracy...
 
Mother left with horrific burns to her knees after kneeling in B&Q cement while doing kitchen DIY
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:49 PM on 15th February 2011

A mum was left with horrific burns on her legs after kneeling in B&Q cement while carrying out DIY in her kitchen.
Jane Dobson feared her legs 'were going to explode' after corrosive cement soaked through her trousers and began burning her flesh.

The 46-year-old spent nine days in hospital and needed a skin graft after suffering the gruesome injuries as she tried to lay cement on her kitchen floor.
Details of Miss Dobson's injuries were revealed to a court after Trading Standards tried to prosecute the Hampshire-based DIY chain.
They claimed the company's own brand cement was unsafe and had inadequate warning signs about the dangers of the cement.
It was claimed the lime ingredient becomes dangerous when water is added to the cement powder and starts to burn skin if not washed off within minutes of contact.

Southampton magistrates heard the label on the cement, bought from its Nursling depot near Southampton, Hants, read: 'Risk of serious damage to eyes. Irritating to respiratory system and skin.
'In case of contact with eyes, rinse immediately with plenty of water and seek medical advice. Wear eye and face protection.'

Giving evidence Miss Dobson, who has a 19-year-old son and a granddaughter, said although at the time she felt no pain, she went to Southampton General Hospital where she underwent tests.
Tearfully, she said: 'There wasn't any sensation in my leg and knees and I was told I would need skin grafts - I said don't be silly I have to go to work in the morning. I was feeling no pain.
'I didn't get pain until the early hours of the morning. I thought my legs were going to explode.'
Doctors then carried out skin grafts at Odstock Burns Unit at Salisbury District Hospital, Wilts.

Simon Antrobus, defending B&Q, who had denied the allegations, argued the cement was 'self-levelling'.

During the case the judge heard that since the incident B&Q now warns of risks of dermatitis or burns on its self-levelling cement.

District judge Anthony Callaway threw out both charges after determining that the product did not breach any safety laws and the chain store could not have reasonably foreseen someone kneeling in it.

After the hearing Miss Dobson, an engineering NVQ assessor from Millbrook, Southampton, said she is now considering a private civil action.
She said: 'Before it happened I was all toned up and proud of my legs.
'I used to enjoy swimming - but I can't do that anymore and I can't go out in shorts because my knees look so bad.'

A spokesman for B&Q said: 'We agree with the judge's decision and hope this brings the case to a close.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1E6oO75s2
 
You can't park there! Miracle escape for driver whose car flipped off road... and landed in a tree
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:05 PM on 16th February 2011

A driver had a miracle escape after careening across a wet road and being launched so high that the car ended up hanging nose-first from a tree.

David Beasley was driving along Chirk Road in North Wales on his way to work as a panel cutter.
But as he approached a bend in the road his wife's green Renault Clio skidded, hit a high pavement and was thrown into the air.
Amazingly, the 44-year-old walked away without a scratch after the airborne flying car became lodged in a tree.
Although the car was hanging nose-down by its wheels over a steep embankment, Mr Beasley was able to force open a door and drop to safety.

'I was just driving out of Chirk and was coming around the bend in the road when the back end broke away,' said Mr Beasley.
'I skidded and found myself heading towards the wall on the right-hand side of the road.
'I managed to correct that and the next thing I knew I was on the other side.
'I then clipped the kerb, which must have flipped me over and thrown me backwards into the tree at the side of the road.
'I was left just hanging down looking at the ground.'

The drama unfolded at 8am on Tuesday as Mr Beasley was driving from his home in Chirk, on the border between England and Wales, to Oswestry.

Despite the spectacular accident that followed, the car sustained little damage.
'The window on my side was broken but I checked the door and found I could still open it,' he said.
'I even managed to put the handbrake on.
'I then got out through the door, dropped down and got back on to the pavement.

'I wasn't going very fast when it happened and I reckon it must have been because the road surface was a bit slippery at that point.
'What is amazing is that the airbag didn't even go off so it all must have happened quite gently.
'I've only got a few cuts and bruises but it could have been a lot worse if I hadn't ended up in the tree.
'If it hadn't been there my car would have just gone straight down the slope into the field.
'I suppose it is a miracle that I have escaped this without being seriously hurt.'

Police temporarily cordoned off the stretch of road while the car was recovered by a specialist truck.
A spokesman for North Wales Police said: 'We were called to the scene of the incident at 8.11am on Tuesday.
'There was one vehicle involved, which was upside down in a tree.
'The driver sustained only minor injuries.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1ED9tmKHD
 
It's not to be for Hamlet as sword play cuts performance short
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/fro ... 76515.html
SHANE HEGARTY, Arts Editor

Tue, Mar 22, 2011

YOU CAN’T have Hamlet without the prince, and a sword-fighting accident cut short a production of the play in Cork yesterday.

The dramatic and premature end to the Second Age production at the Everyman Theatre came when actor Conor Madden collapsed during a pivotal duel scene with Aonghus Óg McAnally, playing Laertes.

According to one theatregoer, many in the audience, mostly of secondary school students, at first presumed it was part of Shakespeare’s play. However, as the prone, but audibly distressed, Madden was immediately assisted by crew members, artistic director Alan Stanford addressed the crowd to assure them that the accident was real and the show would not go on.

Madden was brought to Cork University Hospital, having sustained a minor facial injury, but was discharged and it is hoped he will take up the sword again shortly.

“Conor is fine,” Stanford told The Irish Times . “It is quite a complex sword fight. And I’m always amazed it doesn’t happen more. It was just one of those rare occasions. The sword caught him under the eye and he pulled back to avoid it but got a small cut. I think he went into a bit of shock.”

The swords used are replicas, with a rounded tip – safer than the squared-off tips that were once in common use but which were more damaging to the skin. The actors had trained with a fight co-ordinator for several weeks before the play’s recent three-week run in Dublin’s Helix, during which the sword fight was played out without incident.

Although Madden will miss two performances due today, including an official opening tonight, Second Age has been able to call on a more than adequate replacement in Marty Rea. His performance as Hamlet last year earned him best actor at the recent Irish Times Theatre Awards.

Madden may be consoled by how he is not the only actor to have had such a mishap.

In 1998, Michael McElhatton was stabbed during a play at Dublin’s Peacock and was rushed to hospital – but only after having carried on to the finale.

Stanford himself was once on the sharp end of a fencing mishap. During one production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses , a sword pierced his clothing and, almost, his ribs.
 
New Zealand trucker 'blown up like balloon' by air hose

A New Zealand truck driver who fell on a compressed air hose that pierced his buttock has survived being blown up like a balloon.
Steven McCormack had fallen between the cab and the trailer of his truck, breaking the air hose.
The nozzle pierced his buttock and began pumping air into his body, which expanded dramatically. :shock:

As he screamed, Mr McCormack's colleagues turned the air off and lay him on his side, saving his life.
The accident happened at Opotiki on the North Island on Saturday.
Mr McCormack, who is 48, is still in hospital in the nearest town, Whakatane.
He said that doctors had told him they were surprised that his skin had not burst, as the compressed air - pumping into his body at 100lb/sq in - had separated fat from muscle.

"I felt the air rush into my body and I felt like it was going to explode from my foot.
"I was blowing up like a football... it felt like I had the bends, like in diving. I had no choice but just to lay there, blowing up like a balloon," he told the local newspaper, the Whakatane Beacon.

He said his skin feels "like a pork roast", hard and crackly on the outside but soft underneath.
He credits his colleagues, especially Jason Wenham who lay him on his side, with saving his life.

Mr Wenham, Ross Hustler and Robbie Petersen had lifted Mr McCormack off the brass nozzle which was still stuck in his body, and packed ice around his swollen neck until an ambulance arrived.

Doctors inserted a tube into his lungs to drain the fluid and cleared the wound in his buttock using what felt to him like a drill.
"That was the most painful part," he said.

"It's fair to say he's lucky to be alive, it was a potentially life-threatening situation," a hospital spokeswoman told AFP on Wednesday.

Mr McCormack confided that the air was gradually escaping his body in the way that air usually does. 8)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13537084
 
Incredible story. This forum is full of high tales of evaporating spirits and Alien abductions, but it never fails to amaze me how the truly awesome stories come from just plain, unquestionable fact.

Loved the last bit where he answers the question we all wanted to ask....did it give him wind! :lol:
 
It is simply amazing that he survived.
 
Yeah, I've heard of this case before.
Check the date - 2004.
I think it may be true.
 
Motorist who struck flying COW at 60mph escapes with just cuts and bruises
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:22 AM on 12th August 2011

A motorist in Staffordshire who hit a cow which jumped over a fence in front of his car escaped the freak accident with cuts and bruises.
Robert Gould said he is lucky to be alive after his car went careering onto the other side of the road and skidded 80 yards.

He was traveling at 60mph at the time and described seeing a 'flying cow'.
The frightened Friesian cow wrote off his Citroen C5 after denting the bonnet and breaking a wheel.
Sadly, the cow died at the scene in Leek and had to be removed using a JCB.

The 24-year-old said: 'I am now looking out for low-flying cows whenever I am driving.'
Robert, a safety officer, from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs, added: 'I was driving along when a cow jumped out and landed on my bonnet.
'It had hurdled a three-foot high fence and hit the front of my car.
'I had no time to brake and my car veered to the other side of the road.
'I was very lucky that nothing was coming in the opposite direction.
'The police were very nice about everything, although I don't think they could quite believe it either.
'They breath-tested me which came back negative.'

Farmer Clive Langford-Mycock believes the cow must have been very frightened to have jumped the fence during last weekend's incident.
He said: 'Accidents involving farm animals are very rare.
'Something must have happened to frighten the cow. Possible causes could be thunder or lightning, low-flying aircraft or one of those stupid Chinese lanterns.
'I hope the driver gets over it.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1Unu6Wy6L
 
Farmer Clive Langford-Mycock believes the cow must have been very frightened to have jumped the fence during last weekend's incident.

Ha! Very likely Clive was chasing the cow at the time...
 
"...or one of those stupid Chinese lanterns"

Oh yeah, we're always hearing of cows being spooked by chinese lanterns aren't we!?
What a very silly thing to say.
 
trevp66 said:
"...or one of those stupid Chinese lanterns"

Oh yeah, we're always hearing of cows being spooked by chinese lanterns aren't we!?
What a very silly thing to say.

They'd be more likely to eat it.
 
trevp66 said:
"...or one of those stupid Chinese lanterns"

Oh yeah, we're always hearing of cows being spooked by chinese lanterns aren't we!?
What a very silly thing to say.
Not really. Farmers have good reason to worry about Chinese lanterns:

Chinese floating lanterns could kill our cattle, say farmers
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... 170#887170

Chinese lanterns pose danger to livestock, NFU says
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... 679#948679

Chinese lantern ban calls from farmers and air authority
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... 18#1061818

A cow is known to have died after eating a part of a lantern’s wire frame, while a foal had to be put down after it was spooked by one and injured itself on a fence
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... 49#1063849

There is also a risk to livestock eating a piece of a lantern’s wire frame and rupturing the stomach and both cows and horses have been injured or killed
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... 76#1116076

I rest my case! ;)
 
I'm just relieved that this all happened at the far north of Staffordshire. Here, in deepest south Staffs, we're not plagued by flying cattle - there's very rarely anything fatter than a pigeon in the air around here.
 
rynner2 said:
trevp66 said:
"...or one of those stupid Chinese lanterns"

Oh yeah, we're always hearing of cows being spooked by chinese lanterns aren't we!?
What a very silly thing to say.

Not really. Farmers have good reason to worry about Chinese lanterns:
.........etc..........


I rest my case! ;)

Er...okay then....!
[sound of aircraft being shot at and crashing in flames]
 
This is perhaps more unusual than ridiculous:

Mid-air rescue for German cable car passengers

Helicopters have plucked to safety 20 people stranded in mid-air on a cable car in southern Germany after a paraglider collided with the cables.
The 19 passengers and conductor were brought to safety after spending 18 hours suspended 80m (260ft) above the ground at Mt Tegelberg in Bavaria.

Rescuers supplied food and blankets, and toys for six children aboard, while waiting for strong winds to die down.
They also freed the paraglider and his tandem passenger.

The head of the cable car operator, Tegelbergbahn, said he was shocked the paraglider had apparently tried to cross the cables.
Pilots knew they were only allowed to fly parallel to them, Franz Bucher said, according to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
It was not immediately clear if the pilot would face charges.

Mt Tegelberg is close to the fairy-tale castle of Neuschwanstein, one of the country's top visitor attractions, and those aboard the cable car were said to be tourists.
Most of them were Germans and they included two east Europeans. They ranged in age from four to 75.

When the paraglider's parachute became tangled in the cables on Friday, visitors were left stranded in three groups:
Twenty in the car at 80m
Thirty in a second car closer to the ground
About 130 at the station on the mountain itself

Those on the mountain were also brought to safety by helicopter while the occupants of the second car were apparently rescued by climbing teams later on Friday.
However, the evacuation of the first car could only proceed on Saturday morning, requiring nine helicopter flights over two hours.

A photo gallery on Bavarian radio's German-language website shows various helicopters delivering people to safety.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14516477
 
Another flying machine goes where it shouldn't...

Up and away! Oops... Crew escape unscathed as balloon crashes into house
By Martin Delgado
Last updated at 12:18 AM on 14th August 2011

This is the moment a hot-air balloon crashed into a family home after hitting telephone lines and clipping two other houses.
Incredibly, the two-man crew escaped unscathed.

The blue-and-yellow balloon – which was taking part in Bristol’s International Balloon Fiesta – had lost height after the father-and-son crew swapped over the gas cylinders that power the burner and hit a chimney pot.
Homeowner Leanne Scott, who lives in Bristol’s Victoria Park, was woken around 8.40am on Friday when the balloon collided with her chimney, about an hour after the Fleur de Lis balloon took off. She said: ‘It woke me up. It sounded like a bomb raid.’

The basket then smashed into a chimney on the house next door before hitting the home of Bernadine Nolan and her son Paul in nearby Alsop Street.
Paul said: ‘The bang woke me and I saw the flame-thrower outside the window before it flew off.’ His mother, Bernadine, added: ‘I saw it hitting the telephone lines and then the roof. I thought it was going to come through the bedroom window.’ More than 30 tiles were torn from her roof by the impact.

Pilot Martin Read managed to steer the balloon away and landed around five miles away at Goose Green in the city.
An experienced pilot, Mr Read was flying with his stepson Terry Wetters. He said: ‘Once you make contact with a structure it becomes more of a problem and chances are you will hit something else.’
The Civil Aviation Authority will carry out an investigation into the incident.
The damage is expected to be covered by insurance.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1Uzm2h2bl
 
I remember years ago, when I was still living with my parents, a Goodyear blimp almost came down in our back garden.
Ascot races had been on, and in the late afternoon there was a sudden thunderstorm with violent winds and dark skies. We heard this low-pitched hum, like a motor really straining away at something.
When we looked, we saw the airship just scraping the treetops at the bottom of the garden.
Eventually, the airship regained control and moved off, so no crash happened.

A dramatic memory that still remains with me to this day.
 
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