DELAWARE: Aviation officials puzzled about so-called UFO that slammed
vehicle
By Alan J. McCombs
The News Journal
It didn't come from an airplane.
The mystery about the origin of a 16-inch, unidentified falling
object that fell from the sky Monday and sliced "like butter" through the
hood of a parked vehicle deepened Tuesday, after an official with the
Federal Aviation Administration announced that whatever it is, it's not a
piece of aircraft.
At about 4 p.m. Monday, the brownish, hook-shaped piece of metal
crashed through the roof of an unoccupied 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander parked
at the Happy Harry's drugstore at 536 Main St. in Stanton. Its arrival
came with a boom that one witness told Mill Creek Fire Company Chief James
Howell sounded like an explosion.
The SUV's owner, Susan Wilson, said she was inside the drugstore at
the time. When she returned to her car, she found ash and debris on the
driver's seat and gaping hole in the vehicle's roof. Nestled on the rear
passenger side floor she found the hot object still smoldering from its
descent.
"The metal was still too hot to handle," Delaware State Police
spokesman Cpl. Jeff Whitmarsh said.
Once the mysterious object had cooled down, it was turned over to
the FAA personnel from the Philadelphia office. The federal agency was
doing some last procedural work on the object Tuesday, but FAA spokesman
Jim Peters said he's confident it didn't come from any plane.
Wilson, of Wilmington and her fiance Michael Roberto have struggled
with how
to deal with the aftermath of the object falling from the sky. Their
SUV has been towed to a repair shop and the couple is waiting on the bill.
Lacking answers to what launched the hunk of metal, Wilson's insurance has
asked her to pay the deductible for the damage.
Contact Alan J. McCombs at amccombs@delawareonline.com.
http://www.dailytimesonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071016/NEWS01/71016045/1002/NEWS01
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