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

[AL Mitterling]

One has to just love Harvey Nininger. A man very much ahead of his time. 
Though there are more aircraft in the air today, and they fly at higher 
altitudes than in Nininger's time, there are also many more automobiles 
these days. Best!

--AL

Nininger Moment #17 - Air Pilots and Meteor Hazards

During Nininger's time a number of airpilots reported having to take 
evasive steps to prevent collisions with falling meteors. One such 
newspaper reported an startling account of how a resourceful pilot 
battled a shower of meteors by making a serious of dips and swerves to 
avoid the incoming falling meteors saving himself, his eleven 
passengers, as well as the aircraft. One other pilot was said to have 
dipped his right wing to avoid a similar collision of a meteor which 
happened in Nebraska. Yet another pilot near Cheyenne Wyoming said he 
narrowly escaped injury when en-countering one of those pestiferous 
fiery projectiles which threaten to side swipe him from the left. He 
"ducked", however and the missile sailed by, leaving him unharmed.

 From the Standpoint of Nininger who had been studying meteoritic events 
and falls and spending much time at it, he considered  the reports 
humorous at best. Nininger reasoned that there were about  two thousand 
times more automobiles on the ground than airplanes in the air. Meteors 
reaching the lower atmosphere where these pilots saw these events would 
certainly reach the ground also, yet at that time no recorded automobile 
had been struck. A highly reported case happening in Crawfordville, 
Indiana had been discredited by scientists who investigated the matter. 
Nininger stated that you would expect one thousand automobile impacts 
for every one aircraft strike.

The stories were even really more incredible for another reason. 
Astronomers know that the fall of a meteor is an event most often seen 
in the higher atmosphere. Only two exceptions were noted where a meteor 
came closer to the ground than 4 miles. The vast majority of them 
extinguishing before they come within ten miles of the ground. Nininger 
stated that in other words, the meteor, or the light resulting from a 
meteorite's [meteoroids] encounter with the Earth's atmosphere is 
limited to the region of the stratosphere, far above  any height ever 
reach by airplanes of that day in ordinary flying.

Nininger knew of the fall of those cited above and concluded that the 
second pilot who thought he saw the meteor below him, plotted the meteor 
height at the burnout point at about 17 miles high, above the 
northeastern New Mexico soil. The second pilot who saw the same meteor 
fall was slightly more than a hundred miles from it at its nearest 
approach. The pilot over Nebraska that dipped his wing to avoid 
collision was 68 miles south of the line over which the dreaded missile 
was speeding at an elevation of approximately 20 miles.

Nininger concluded that pilots are no less reliable in such matters than 
are ground
observers, but the fact is that no one is able to judge the distance 
from him of a bright, dazzling light. He concluded that pilots 
apparently share the ignorance of the general public as the to the 
behavior of meteorites. Nininger stated that hundreds of other examples 
could be cited similar to the high school super- intending who told him 
exactly where a meteorite had landed in the neighboring field. From 
where he stood he was confident and pointed out the fall location. 
Fortunately, he knew the hour and minute of the fall and gave an 
eloquent description of the phenomenon, which sounded familiar to 
Nininger, as the story had been told by observers from all the way where 
they stood to where the meteorite had landed some 350 miles away!!!!

It is absolutely impossible for any single observer to judge the 
distance of a meteor. It's location can be determine only by a crossline 
survey. To this, pilots might contribute considerable information if 
they would take account of their exact location upon sighting and 
determine with their instruments the exact direction and altitude of the 
point where the meteor vanishes. Also recording the angle of decent 
would prove helpful. A pilots observation using these methods would be 
more than helpful than a person on the ground without any instruments to 
record what they see. Nininger also stated that at that time no report 
from an airpilot had ever been used to calculate the fall of a 
meteorite. He believed however that with his methods being noted that 
such reports could be very valuable.


The Nininger Moments are articles or books written originally by Harvey 
Nininger and put into a consolidated form by Al Mitterling. Some of the 
items written in the moments might be old out dated material and the 
reader is advised to keep this in mind.

--AL Mitterling

Chris Peterson wrote:

> So far, I've heard nothing to make me think that anything from space, 
> natural or otherwise, came within a few kilometers of this plane. Is 
> there anything to support this other than the report of the pilot? 
> I've found that pilots, in general, provide some of the worst quality 
> meteor reports. I'm doubtful that many pilots are capable of judging 
> the distance to a meteor. Odds are, this thing actually burned up many 
> kilometers above the plane.
>
> Chris