According to CNN, recently in the state of Maine, USA, a metal object fell from the sky and nearly killed a police officer. The fortunate man was several meters away from the impact site.
Officer Craig Donahue reported that he was returning from his lunch break when he heard a loud bang and saw a metal object.
Curious, he approached the fallen object and discovered it was a small cylinder. He suspected it was a part of an aircraft that had fallen from the sky.
“It was quite heavy and covered in oil,” the man shared.
Mysterious cylindrical metal object. (Photo: Maine Dept. of Public Safety)
According to authorities in Maine, Craig was not the only one to witness the metal object fall from the sky. Two others also saw it drop around 12:30 PM local time near a building in Augusta, the state capital of Maine. However, no injuries were reported.
Craig retrieved the cylindrical metal piece and reported the incident to the Federal Aviation Administration. There, he was told they would try to trace which aircraft the part belonged to, but it was likely from an airline operating on international routes.
Previously, a large piece of the exterior of a SpaceX rocket was discovered to have fallen on a farmer’s field in New South Wales, Australia.
The object was found standing upright on the ground and was black in color, believed to have fallen into the field on July 9, but the farmer did not notice it until several weeks later. Additionally, two other fragments were found nearby.
The Australian Space Agency (ASA) has requested SpaceX to set up a hotline for residents to contact in case they discover more debris in the area.
Most rocket debris that returns to Earth falls into the ocean; however, there have been historical instances where debris has landed on land.
For example, a person was struck by debris in Oklahoma (USA) in 1997, while a building was damaged by a piece of Chinese rocket that fell in Côte d’Ivoire in 2020.
With the increasing number of space launches globally in recent times, along with the Sun entering a period of heightened activity, experts warn that it could lead to a significant amount of debris falling to Earth.
