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Strange Falls & Rains Of Objects & Substances

One would hope that if it fell from a plane that they might.... you know... notice it was missing?

Oh sheet! Metal falls from sky

Woman says large piece of metal - possibly from a jet - fell out of the sky and onto her parked SUV

By ROB LAMBERTI, Toronto Sun


Karen MacLellan of Mississauga says she’s one lucky lady.

A large metal sheet, possibly from the wing off an jet, crashed into the rear of her SUV less than a minute after she parked it around 9:30 p.m. Monday.

“Sitting on the ground is this long metal piece about eight, 10 feet long and about three feet wide,” MacLellan says.

“I might buy a (lottery) ticket for Friday,” she says. But her three kids say their grandmother’s spirit was watching over their mom Monday night.

“I thankful there were no kids coming out there” at the time, she says. “You know what the worst part of this was? I missed my dance lesson."

For more on this story, read Wednesday's Toronto Sun or torontosun.com

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2 ... 60895.html
 
A large metal sheet, possibly from the wing off an jet, crashed into the rear of her SUV less than a minute after she parked it
I think this is God's way of hinting that she should get a more economical vehicle! :D
 
strange falls

15 years ago I worked at a photo processing plant. During the day shift in summer there was an intense storm -- high winds and thunder, etc. Then we had our afternoon break and I walked outside because the sun was coming out. There were shallow puddles all over the asphalt covered parking area. Several of us noticed that the puddles were full of balls of red worms, such as are native to our area and are found in loose soil. There were dozens, maybe hundreds of these balls lying around and several of us looked at them curiously. The worms were smaller than the ones I've seen in soil, all tangled up with each other in a ball. Although they were moving around, when the sun came out they quickly died on the hot black asphalt and then the dried up worms just lay there for days until they blew away I guess. I've never seen red worms balled up like that before or since. No way to know for sure if they fell in the rain, but how could balls of worms migrate from soil to the asphalt like that, unless this is some strange part of worm life I haven't learned about. :lol:
 
Farmer forced to burn £8,000 worth of crops after 'aeroplane scatters human waste across 25 acres of land'
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 6:02 PM on 7th October 2010

A farmer was ordered to burn £8,000 worth of crops after human waste was found strewn across his land.

Ian Clegg was horrified to discover faeces and sanitary towels dumped in his fields when he went to tend to his livestock.
He believes it may have fallen from an aeroplane.
An investigation has now been launched into how the waste came to be dumped on Brooklands Farm, near Kettering in Northamptonshire.

'I went out shepherding with my son at about 5pm on Tuesday and we found the stuff spread over an area of about 25 acres,' Mr Clegg said.
'It's spread all across my fields which were growing animal feed which we have been told by the vets we have to dig up and burn now. It's destroyed £8,000 worth of my crops, at a conservative estimate.'

He said he had been forced to move all his livestock and have animals checked over by vets.
'It's my very livelihood at stake here,' he said.
'We don't have a spare £8,000 to pay for winter feed. We've been told we won't be able to use the field again until the spring.
It's a major incident covering a vast area. I've had to move my sheep and cattle indoors and have them all checked over by vets at great expense.
'I have heard of ice falling from aircraft but never this. I couldn't believe my eyes, it was a scene of devastation.'

An officer from the Environment Agency were on the scene yesterday morning amid fears the pollution may have affected a stream which runs through the site.
'An officer has been to the site to check the water course for pollution and luckily there appears to be none,' a spokesman said.
'A lot of the waste seems to have washed away overnight in the heavy rain,' a spokesman said.
'At the moment we understand the waste has come from a plane, although that is not something we have ever heard of before.'

Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Richard Taylor confirmed the organisation had launched an investigation to try to find out which planes were in the area at the time.
'I have to stress that aircraft do not flush their toilets into the air during flight,' he added.
'There can be faults with the pipes that carry water through the aircraft, a washer may wear out and fail before it is replaced, but this would only release water rather than solid waste and the planes would be so high up that it would immediately turn to ice.

'We are investigating using radar records to see what planes were in the area at the time, the difficulty is we don't have an exact time that the waste landed.
'In incidents where we can identify the aircraft involved, we write to the airline first of all to investigate whether it was their aircraft and there was a fault.
'We cannot prosecute airlines ourselves for this, but people who have suffered damage can pursue them for costs and the airline's insurance would cover this.'

The authority confirmed the airspace above Kettering was busy, with planes flying into Stansted, Luton and East Midlands Airports and a trans-atlantic route at 30,000 feet.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z11kqYRj3g
 
It may well be impossible to prove that a specific plane was responsible. There should a central fund (paid for by airlines) to compensate for cases like this, ice falls etc.
 
Mystery of the orange substance invading from skies in one of the world's most remote spots
By Mail On Sunday Reporter
Last updated at 2:04 AM on 7th August 2011

A strange orange substance raining down from the skies has left villagers in one of the world’s most remote areas mystified.
The alien invader was found in rain buckets in Kivalina, an Eskimo community in Alaska, and floating in the harbour, creating 100ft-by-10ft swathes of what one resident described as ‘bright neon orange’.

The news attracted all the townspeople, keen to get a glimpse of the phenomenon that covered much of the harbor and then began washing ashore on Wednesday.

On Thursday it rained, and residents found the orange matter floating on top of the rain buckets they use to collect drinking water. It was also found on one roof, leading them to believe whatever it was, it was airborne, too.
By Friday, the orange substance in the lagoon had dissipated or washed out to sea, and what was left on ground had dried to a powdery substance.
Residents, who have been left mystified by these events, have been advised to boil drinking water and to keep children away from the substance.

The Coast Guard already has ruled out that the orange material, which some people described as having a semi-solid feel to it, was man-made or a petroleum product.

Village administrator Janet Mitchell has said that algae is the best guess.
She voiced the main concern of the villagers, which is that the substance might be harmful: 'What will it do to fish, which villagers will soon start catching to stock up for winter, or the caribou currently being hunted, or the berries? We rely 100 percent on subsistence.'

A further complication is that reserves are running low in the city's two water tanks.
The tanks need to be filled this summer from the Wulik River to make it through the winter. Pumping cannot resume until the orange substance has been identified.

Emanuel Hignutt, a state-employed chemist, said: ‘At this point it’s a mystery.’
'There are a number of experts in the areas who can identify if it's an organic material, for example, and what species this is. Perhaps it's not an organic material, and we're going to determine that as well.' Hignutt added.
Portions of the samples will also be sent to the University of Alaska Fairbanks and to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lab in South Carolina for testing.

63-year-old Kivalina resident Austin Swan said: 'This is the first for Kivalina, as far as I know.'
Swan helped collect some samples for testing, and grabbed some of the substance in his gloved hand.
'It was really light, with a powdery look to it, and it was just floating on there, all bunched up together,' he said. 'It looked like it could blow away very easily.'
Swan added that some of the material had an oil-like sheen to it.

Kivalina wasn't alone in reporting the strange orange substance last Wednesday.
Shannon Melton said she was boating on the Buckland River about 150 miles southeast of Kivalina, and the river was not its normal color. 'It was orange looking.' she said.

She took the boat out again on Thursday to go berry picking, and said the river had returned to its normal color, but some of the creeks off the river still had the orange tinge to them.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1UKjcE4LX
 
Maybe it wasn't a 'fall' after all:

Mysterious Alaskan 'goo' identified as fat-filled eggs
By Enjoli Liston
Wednesday, 10 August 2011

A strange, orange-coloured goo that appeared on the shores of a remote Alaskan village last week has been identified as millions of microscopic eggs.

Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the fat-filled eggs are probably embryos produced by some kind of crustacean. However, mystery still surrounds the exact species of the eggs, and scientists say they may never know what caused so many to wash up on the shores of lagoons, ponds and puddles in the hamlet of Kivalina, an Inupiat Eskimo community at the tip of a barrier reef on Alaska's north-west coast.

"We'll probably find some clues, but we'll likely never have a definitive answer," Julie Speegle of the NOAA said. She dismissed speculation that the phenomenon, which occurred soon after rain showers, was a result of climate change. Although the goo has now disappeared, many of the village's 347 residents continue to worry about its long-term effects because officials have been unable to confirm that the eggs are not toxic.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 35019.html
 
Apples fall from the sky over Coventry
Stunned motorists were forced to brake sharply to avoid the falling fruit, believed to be swept up by a vortex caused by freak weather conditions in Coventry.
By Donna Bowater
3:18PM GMT 14 Dec 2011

An avalanche of more than 100 apples rained down over a main road in Keresley, Coventry on Monday night.
The street was left littered with apples after they pelted car windscreens and bonnets just after rush-hour.

The bizarre downpour may have been caused by a current of air that lifted the fruit from a garden or orchard, releasing it over the junction of Keresley Road and Kelmscote Road.
One driver said: "The apples fell out of the sky as if out of nowhere. They were small and green and hit the bonnet hard.
"There were other cars on the road at the time too and everyone had to stop their cars suddenly.
"It wouldn't surprise me if some cars were damaged. I know the area well and there are no apple trees around."

Yesterday, the smashed apples could still be seen up and down the 20-yard stretch of road.
Dave Meakins, a retired fork lift truck driver, said he thought the apples had been thrown as a prank by children.
"I honestly don't know where the apples could have come from," he said.
"I assumed kids must have thrown them because we do get the occasional egg and apple thrown but there's way too much for that.
"I would love to know where they came from."

Some said they thought the apples had fallen from a passing plane.
Keresley parish councillor Sandra Camwell said a freak black-out happened on the same road last year.
She said: "Strange things do happen in this part of the world. I think it's highly likely that apples did fall from the sky.
"We're in an area with a spooky history, where there have been witches for centuries, after all."

The Met Office said it was possible the apples had been scooped up by a tornado.
He said: "It's hypothetically possible that a tornado could have picked them up and that they were transported in turbulent air until they fell."

Jim Dale, senior meteorologist, from British Weather Services, said: "The weather we have at the moment is very volatile and we probably have more to come.
"Essentially these events are caused when a vortex of air, kind of like a mini tornado, lifts things off the ground rising up into the atmosphere until the air around it causes them to fall to earth again.
"Returning polar maritime air is such an unstable condition and it basically means air returning from the polar regions which is very unstable. [Techno-garble!]
"We've all heard of the fish and frogs falling from the sky and apples is certainly unusual because they have some weight to them but it is not out of the realms of possibility."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... entry.html
 
Could it actually rain apples?
By Caroline McClatchey, BBC News Magazine

There are reports that a deluge of apples fell from the sky in Coventry, battering car bonnets and littering people's gardens. But could it actually rain apples?
Everyone has heard the expression it's raining cats and dogs. But in Coundon in Coventry the allegation is that it rained apples.
Drivers say scores of small green ones brought traffic to a standstill on the B4098, while a resident told the Daily Mail he opened his front door to find his garden full of dented apples.

There is no other evidence that it did actually "rain apples", but it would not be the first time that strange items have dropped from the sky.
Many of the biblical-sounding stories involve fish and frogs. One of the earliest accounts of frog and fish storms was given by the Roman writer Pliny in his Natural History written during the 1st Century AD.
One story from 1859 tells of two showers at 10-minute intervals covering a part of Aberdare in live minnow and smooth-tailed sticklebacks.

Frog falls were recorded in Llanddewi, Powys, in 1996 and two years later in Croydon, south London. In 2000, hundreds of dead silver sprats fell out of the sky during a rainstorm in the seaside resort of Great Yarmouth.
There have also been maggot downpours - in Acapulco in 1967 and during a yachting event at the 1976 Olympic Games.

Such freak events have been attributed to a rare but not uncommon weather phenomenon. Given strong enough winds, in thunderstorms for example, small whirlwinds and mini-tornadoes may form.
If the storm brews out at sea, or crosses a river, these can scoop up water and small fish swimming close to the surface. Sooner or later, the clouds carrying them will open and drop their strange cargo.

Cars and houses have been swept up by tornadoes, so apples are well within the realms of possibility, says Dr Lisa Jardine-Wright, a physicist at the Cavendish Laboratory, based at Cambridge University.
"A tornado which has swept through an orchard will be strong enough to 'suck up' small objects like a vacuum [cleaner]. These small objects would then be deposited back to earth as 'rain' when the whirlwind loses its energy."

There are other theories surrounding the apples, such as the notion that they could have fallen from a plane.
But why would anyone do that? Falling off the back of a lorry would be a more plausible explanation.

Scientists would need to analyse the state of the apples and assess the damage in order to try to determine the source, says Dr Jardine-Wright
"By comparing this damage with a series of experiments, we would be able to determine how much energy and momentum the apples had when they collided.
"However, as objects fall they eventually reach a maximum (terminal) velocity after which they accelerate no more - an apple falling from more than about 20m has reached this maximum velocity so broadly speaking any apple falling from above this height would cause approximately the same amount of damage.
"Therefore without further information, for example weather conditions, direction of fall etc. it is difficult to scientifically distinguish their source."

At the time the apples supposedly fell from the sky, it was pretty calm over Coventry, according to the BBC Weather Centre. The Met Office says there were no reports of tornadoes in the area.

Dr Curtis Wood, a meteorologist from the University of Reading, says that while the UK often tops world rankings in terms of the number of tornadoes per square kilometre - in total around 10 to 50 tornadoes per year - they tend not to be very strong.
If there had been a tornado in Coventry, he says, it would have needed to have found a box of apples or an orchard within a few hundred metres of where the apples were found.
"The tornadoes don't get very strong and they are not going to transport items very far."

It is not the first apple shower to be reported in the UK, according to Paul Sieveking, co-editor of the Fortean Times, a magazine dedicated to the world of strange phenomena.
In November 1984, 300 apples - of the Bramley and Cox varieties to be precise - landed in a back garden in Accrington, Lancashire.
"The couple woke up to a thunderous noise and thought it was hail. The apples kept on falling for an hour, so it could not have been a plane."
Reluctant to guess the source of the Coventry apples, Sieveking says he is tolerant of uncertainty and human beings love a good puzzle. 8)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16197529
 
I suppose apples are no more unlikely than fish, frogs or worms falling from the sky, only this time you don't have the waterspout explanation to fall back on, or any explanation why it was just one type of fruit and nothing else (as usual).
 
gncxx said:
I suppose apples are no more unlikely than fish, frogs or worms falling from the sky, only this time you don't have the waterspout explanation to fall back on, or any explanation why it was just one type of fruit and nothing else (as usual).
The uniformity is probably because the really heavy stuff drops out first, and the lighter stuff remains airborne. With the fish, they tend to school anyway, so uniformity wouldn't be strange, and apples are mostly grown in orchards, so there's a uniformity of stuff to pick up.

Maybe falls are more common (remember the recent orange tic tac thread), but only the more uniform falls stand out, because of their uniformity? The non uniform stuff drops steadily, and isn't noticed?
 
kamalktk said:
gncxx said:
I suppose apples are no more unlikely than fish, frogs or worms falling from the sky, only this time you don't have the waterspout explanation to fall back on, or any explanation why it was just one type of fruit and nothing else (as usual).
The uniformity is probably because the really heavy stuff drops out first, and the lighter stuff remains airborne. With the fish, they tend to school anyway, so uniformity wouldn't be strange, and apples are mostly grown in orchards, so there's a uniformity of stuff to pick up.

If we suppose that the fall was reported accurately, why didn't the apples fall with parts of branches of the same weight ? Why were none of them still attached to branches ?
Similarly, when it comes to falls of animals, we should have random fishes, frogs, shrimps etc... of same size and weight. While falls of individuals of various size and the same species, sometimes solitary, are reported.
 
"Space ball" drops on Namibia

A single object probably doesn't count as a 'fall', but I was reminded of this thread when I read this:

"Space ball" drops on Namibia
Published on 22 December 2011 - 1:33pm


A large metallic ball fell out of the sky on a remote grassland in Namibia, prompting baffled authorities to contact NASA and the European space agency.

The hollow ball with a circumference of 1.1 metres (43 inches) was found near a village in the north of the country some 750 kilometres (480 miles) from the capital Windhoek, according to police forensics director Paul Ludik.

Locals had heard several small explosions a few days beforehand, he said.

With a diameter of 35 centimetres (14 inches), the ball has a rough surface and appears to consist of "two halves welded together".

It was made of a "metal alloy known to man" and weighed six kilogrammes (13 pounds), said Ludik.

It was found 18 metres from its landing spot, a hole 33 centimetres deep and 3.8 meters wide.

Several such balls have dropped in southern Africa, Australia and Latin America in the past twenty years, authorities found in an Internet search.

The sphere was discovered mid-November, but authorities first did tests before announcing the find.

Police deputy inspector general Vilho Hifindaka concluded the sphere did not pose any danger.

"It is not an explosive device, but rather hollow, but we had to investigate all this first," he said.

http://www.rnw.nl/africa/bulletin/space ... ps-namibia
 
Analis said:
kamalktk said:
gncxx said:
I suppose apples are no more unlikely than fish, frogs or worms falling from the sky, only this time you don't have the waterspout explanation to fall back on, or any explanation why it was just one type of fruit and nothing else (as usual).
The uniformity is probably because the really heavy stuff drops out first, and the lighter stuff remains airborne. With the fish, they tend to school anyway, so uniformity wouldn't be strange, and apples are mostly grown in orchards, so there's a uniformity of stuff to pick up.

If we suppose that the fall was reported accurately, why didn't the apples fall with parts of branches of the same weight ? Why were none of them still attached to branches ?
Similarly, when it comes to falls of animals, we should have random fishes, frogs, shrimps etc... of same size and weight. While falls of individuals of various size and the same species, sometimes solitary, are reported.
Seems harder to rip a branch of a tree than take the apple off a branch. The wind currents keeping them aloft could suddenly end. Solitary falls could be only one object was in the pickup area. I'm not claiming I totally understand these falls, but I can think of logical reasons for the things you mention.
 
Re: "Space ball" drops on Namibia

kamalktk said:
kmossel said:
A single object probably doesn't count as a 'fall', but I was reminded of this thread when I read this:

"Space ball" drops on Namibia
Link said there was a pic, but there wasn't a pic when I went to the link. This one has a pic http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8972985/Mystery-space-ball-drops-on-Namibia.html

I seem to remember several of these things falling on Australia sometime back in the 80s. Probably from a Russian space vehicle, I think.
 
Probably spent nuclear fuel...

That ought to keep them going for a while...
 
kamalktk said:
Seems harder to rip a branch of a tree than take the apple off a branch. The wind currents keeping them aloft could suddenly end. Solitary falls could be only one object was in the pickup area.

I think there is a misunderstanding. By solitary, I meant that individuals from these species used to live isolated, not in shoals.
As for apple trees, having a number of them in my garden, I can testify that it doesn't need a tornado to ripp branches from them. A strong wind can do that. I suppose that a tornado could break and ripp whole branches.
 
Bournemouth resident mystified by 'blue sphere shower'

A man in Dorset has been left mystified after tiny blue spheres fell from the sky into his garden.

Steve Hornsby from Bournemouth said the 3cm diameter balls came raining down late on Thursday afternoon during a hail storm.

He found about a dozen of the balls in his garden. He said: "[They're] difficult to pick up, I had to get a spoon and flick them into a jam jar."

The Met Office said the jelly-like substance was "not meteorological".

Mr Hornsby, a former aircraft engineer, said: "The sky went a really dark yellow colour.

"As I walked outside to go to the garage there was an instant hail storm for a few seconds and I thought, 'what's that in the grass'?"

'No smell'

Mr Hornsby said he was keeping the balls in his fridge while he tried to find out what they were

Walking around his garden he found many more blue spheres were scattered across the grass.

He said: "The have an exterior shell with a softer inner but have no smell, aren't sticky and do not melt."

Josie Pegg, an applied science research assistant at Bournemouth University, speculated that the apparently strange phenomena might be "marine invertebrate eggs".

"These have been implicated in previous 'strange goo' incidents," she said. "I'd have thought it's a little early for spawning but I suppose we've had a very mild winter.

"The transmission of eggs on birds' feet is well documented and I guess if a bird was caught out in a storm this could be the cause."

BBC News

No smell and no stickiness. Must be marine invertebrate eggs then.

I've had a few strange "goo" incidents myself.
 
They don't really look like paintballs. As for them being marine invertebrate eggs, it would've helped if the quoted 'expert' had named an example. How many have 3cm eggs?
 
Jerry_B said:
They don't really look like paintballs. As for them being marine invertebrate eggs, it would've helped if the quoted 'expert' had named an example. How many have 3cm eggs?

Yes, I don't think 'marine invertebrate eggs' is the explanation.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Yes, I don't think 'marine invertebrate eggs' is the explanation.
Perhaps they're Kraken eggs...

(We have had a lot of unstable air masses recently that could have caused the odd waterspout over the sea... ;) )
 
Doesn't this sound like total bollox?
Josie Pegg, an applied science research assistant at Bournemouth University, speculated that the apparently strange phenomena might be "marine invertebrate eggs".

"These have been implicated in previous 'strange goo' incidents," she said. "I'd have thought it's a little early for spawning but I suppose we've had a very mild winter.

"The transmission of eggs on birds' feet is well documented and I guess if a bird was caught out in a storm this could be the cause."
Which birds carry around 3 cm eggs on their feet? :evil:
 
Seems the most likely. Note that the witness doesn't state that he saw them fall from the sky - he just remarked about the weather in which the find took place.
 
Trooper, motorist: Mysterious object fell from sky

LITCHFIELD, Conn. (AP) — Authorities in northwestern Connecticut say they didn't find anything after a state trooper and another person reported a large object falling out of the sky in Litchfield.

The Republican-American of Waterbury reports (http://bit.ly/HEwTYZ ) that a person driving in Litchfield at about 2 a.m. Tuesday reported that a green, glowing object the size of a whale fell from the sky and crashed into Bantam Lake. Officials say that at about the same time, a state trooper 10 miles away in Warren called dispatchers to report that something fell out of the sky and landed near Bantam or Morris.

Morris firefighters made several passes up and down the lake in a boat looking for a possible plane crash, but didn't find any debris.

Authorities called off the search, leaving the mystery unsolved.

Source
 
Another report of balls falling from the sky - this time, yellow ones:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-19329288

Leicester couple pelted by raining yellow plastic balls

A husband and wife have been left puzzled after hundreds of tiny yellow plastic balls rained in their garden.

Dylis Scott and her husband Tony were in their garage on Monica Road, Leicester, on Sunday when the balls fell from the sky during a storm.

Mrs Scott said they started hitting the car and garage door and "shooting at me".

The Met Office said it was possible for weather systems to lift things such as dust and deposit them many miles away.

In January it was reported that 3cm diameter blue balls came raining down during a hailstorm in Bournemouth, Dorset.

Theories on what the balls could have been included crystals used in floral displays or ammunition for a toy gun.

More text and photo at link.
 
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