Metal falls from sky, crashes into NJ business

[Namenlos Ein]

http://wcbstv.com/local/jersey.city.metal.2.937877.html

 

Feb 18, 2009 2:40 pm US/Eastern

 

FAA: Falling Metal Did Not Come From Airplane

 

JERSEY CITY (CBS) ― The Federal Aviation Administration says a piece of hot metal that crashed through the roof of a Jersey City business did not come from an airplane.

 

FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac says investigators examined the metal and determined it is made of cast iron, which is not used in airplanes. She says it's up to local authorities to determine where the object came from.

 

Owner Al Smith was fork-lifting a sofa onto a wooden storage platform around 10 a.m. at his moving company when he heard a sound he thought was a bomb.

 

A piece of warm metal the size of a brick came crashing through the roof just steps from where he was standing. It splintered a wooden beam and crashed into a shelf.

 

Smith tells WCBS radio that no one was injured. He plans buy a lottery ticket, saying it's his lucky day.

 

He says the metal is about the size of a brick and came crashing through the roof around 10 a.m.

 

Officials at the scene also confirmed to WCBS radio that the metal was too hot to touch for about 30 minutes after crashing through the roof.

http://lenta.ru/news/2009/02/19/metal/ — in Russian, with photo.

 

Any ideas what is suppose to be?

[hitman]

It may involve a piece of a Russian or a US sattellite that collided a few days ago.

[192nd_Erdem]

I don't think they use cast iron in satellites either, it's just too heavy. But in Russia, everything can happen :D

[Mustang]

It may involve a piece of a Russian or a US sattellite that collided a few days ago.

 

Damn, *if* it was, i'd be damn worried incase it were radioactive :huh:

[hitman]

I don't think they use cast iron in satellites either, it's just too heavy. But in Russia, everything can happen :D

Its one of a few metals that can take extreme temps without losing shape or losing integral strength in a very wide operating temperature range. They wouldnt use a whole lot of it, but I would wager a guesstimate maybe it was part of a rocket motor mount.

 

Who knows? Junks going to be falling out of the sky for a while since that satellite collision occurred a few days ago.

I don't think it is from the crashed satellites. It would have burned up and vaporized as it entered the earth's atmosphere.

[hitman]

I don't think it is from the crashed satellites. It would have burned up and vaporized as it entered the earth's atmosphere.

If it was large enough, there would be some remains. Cast iron can survive a trip like that. Remember, it was too hot to touch for a half hour after it landed, it certainly didnt cool off on the way down.

[herig2]

Jersey City UFO mystery solved: It's another flying 'tooth'

 

by Charles Hack/The Jersey Journal Wednesday February 18, 2009, 8:12 PM

 

Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey JournalThe object that fell through the roof of the Al Smith Moving on Pacific Avenue in Jersey City has been identified by police as a part from a mulching machine.

For a few hours earlier today an eight-pound chunk of metal that crashed through the roof of a Jersey City warehouse was an unidentified flying object.

Theories abounded -- perhaps it was piece of a plane, maybe debris from the recent collision in space between a U.S. satellite and defunct Russian satellite.

But Jersey City police solved the case shortly after noon.

The metal chunk -- which took 30 minutes to cool after it crashed through the roof of Al Smith Moving at 33 Pacific Ave. at 9:26 a.m. -- turned out to be a missing tooth of a gigantic mulching machine located roughly three football fields away at Reliable Wood Products at 1 Caven Point Avenue, police spokesman Lt. Edgar Martinez said.

And it's not the first time in Hudson a tooth flew off a machine and crashed through a roof.

The brick-shaped block, which measured 6 x 4 x 2 inches, and had two hexagonal holes at the top, cut through the roof, splintered a beam and fell about 10 feet away from Al Smith, one of two brothers who own the moving and office furniture company.

Forklifting a sofa on a rack at the time, Smith said he heard a loud crash and saw the object crash onto shelving.

"It sounded like a big explosion. And I didn't know what it was but I see the hole that was in the roof. When I went up on the rack where it landed it was a block of steel," Smith said. "It was an odd thing to happen and I didn't know what to do so I called the police."

Smith added he planned to buy a lottery ticket since it must be his lucky day.

Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey JournalPolice respond to a call at Al Smith Moving at 33 Pacific Ave. in Jersey City where an unidentified object fell through the roof.

Today's flying mulching machine tooth is not the first time a mechanical part has caused a scare in Hudson County.

In July 2007, a 10-pound tooth from an industrial wood grinder at the former Military Ocean Terminal in Bayonne broke off and flew a half-mile over the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail and Route 440 before tearing through a house roof on Avenue E, narrowly missing a man inside.

Then in October, 2008, a 30-pound blade that flew off a land-clearing vehicle a quarter-mile away smashed into a rental car at a U.S. Postal Service bulk mail facility on County Road in Jersey City.

The tooth that caused today's UFO scare came from a trailer-sized grinder, which is used to chop wood down to chip-size piece, said Reliable Wood Products Vice President Eugene Ciarkowski.

Ciarkowski, who said has it never happened at their facility before, said the operator did not notice because of the din created by the powerful diesel engine and grinding wood.

"This is a freak event and it is not something you can anticipate," Ciarkowski said.

The machine, he said, has been shut down pending further inspection to make sure it is safe for operations.

"The good news is that no one was injured," said Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy. "It did blast through the roof very close to one of the (owners) but it was his lucky day and nothing happened to him."

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[Namenlos Ein]

O it's too boring. No UFO, antigravitation and such things. But those guys in moving company are really lucky ones.

[monotwix]

So what is it.

1. A military test fault

2. Intelligence exercise

3. UFO oo

4. I would have thought the titanium had a kick ass property over the cast iron, not to mention the food cost per pound which is about 15000 USD on the shuttle per launch (correct?).

5. Things do burn up through the atmosphere.

6. If you play horse play, which would you bet for I.e. 1 cubic foot of cast iron in a shape of a cube, or a titanium frame of the most integral place of space structure.

5. That’s why places like futurama take us to snoo snoo and 0100011001112 proper proper here we are stuff.

7. Proportionally I think that it was a piece of hot metal.

8. And also a couple of bearings lost.

[jpm1]

the mulching machine story's just unbelievable :lol:

If it was large enough, there would be some remains. Cast iron can survive a trip like that. Remember, it was too hot to touch for a half hour after it landed, it certainly didnt cool off on the way down.

Now we know it's a tooth LOL.

 

If it fell out of the sky still intact, something the size of a brick would have left a pretty large crater.

[CE_Mikemonster]

I used to hit golf balls against a sports-hall wall with my mates a few years back .. I suppose this proves that when we missed the wall they actually landed somewhere lol (You always wonder don't you..).

[Brit_Radar_Dude]

I suppose this proves that when we missed the wall they actually landed somewhere....

So it was you !!!