[meteorite-list] Space junk re-entry just misses Chilean jetliner

[Chris Peterson]

It would be normal to hear sonic booms if the plane was within 100 km or 
so of the object, which could easily be many kilometers higher. I've got 
many pilot reports of meteors level with or below the plane, when this 
was clearly not the case. Of course, typical meteors that are 100s of 
kilometers away may be seen below the plane (but distances are usually 
reported too close by one or two orders of magnitude).

While it certainly isn't impossible for meteoroids or space junk to 
survive (burning) to aircraft cruise heights, it's not common. Until I 
hear evidence other than just the pilot's report, I'll assume that what 
actually happened was far less dramatic than what is being reported.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "dean bessey" <deanbessey at yahoo.com>
To: <Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 4:16 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Space junk re-entry just misses Chilean 
jetliner


> The pilot also claims to have herd a loud noise which
> means it must have been pretty close to hear that
> above the sound of the plane. Also he saw pieces in
> front of and behind him so he was probably actually
> inside the debris field.
> Apparantly the aviation officials (CAA) in New Zealand
> was informed by the russians about the space debris
> dumping which is a relitively common occurance here
> apparantly but the debris entered the atmosphere 12
> hours early for some reason and planes were in the
> area. An aerolinas argentinas flight was also entering
> the area (From the opposite direction) and was warned
> of the unexpected re-entry but the pilot decided to
> continue their flight and they didnt witness anything.
> The flight was inside auckland internationals control
> zone but still over the pacific ocean (From what I
> understand from local news here) so the debris fell in
> the ocean so no search and recovery effort is
> possible.
> Cheers
> DEAN