http://townsvillebulletin.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,91744
Fiery show has North buzzing By HAYLEY SEENEY Townsville Bulletin (Australia) April 3, 2004 A PILOT has told of a large green ball which spanned his plane's front windshield dropping from the sky and bursting into flames before hitting the Earth during a spectacular sky show that has the North buzzing. Experts now believe the reported sightings of flaming fireballs falling through the sky on Wednesday night were part of a "meteor grouping" or a mini-meteor shower and not one large fireball. Up to yesterday afternoon, witnesses were contacting the Townsville Bulletin with stories of fireballs hitting the ground at Winton, east of Mount Isa and near the Burdekin. Cairns-based pilot Ron Uhr was on his way back from Mount Gordon, also known as Gunpowder, to Townsville when he saw two fireballs within an hour, including one that witnesses believed hit the ground. Mr Uhr said the first sighting occurred sometime between 7.15pm and 7.30pm Wednesday, 95.5km east of Mount Isa. The second sighting was 128.7km west of Townsville about 8.15pm. "With the first one it filled the front of my window, a large green ball and then it exploded with sparks out the back," Mr Uhr said. "It just seemed so close, I thought it was coming at us at first." Mr Uhr said when the object burst into flames, it looked like an exploding spaceship. He said it hit the ground and the passengers and crew could see a large, orange glow at the point of impact. The second green ball was smaller than the first and also exploded into fire, Mr Uhr said. However, it appeared to have broken up and burnt out before hitting Earth. "It was quite impressive," Mr Uhr said. "I read the paper in the morning and that was exactly what I saw, it was not a UFO at all but a large green ball both times." A passenger on board the Alliance Airlines flight QQ714 from Brisbane to Townsville, Allan Vanska, said yesterday he saw the fireball suddenly appear out his window. It travelled as a glowing orange ball before hitting the ground in a white haze. Mr Vanska said after what he thought was impact, the fireball could no longer be seen. An Alliance Airlines spokesman said the flight would have been just north of the Burdekin, perhaps at Giru, at the time Mr Vanska says he saw the fireball. Winton residents also believed a fireball impacted in their area with Mayor Bruce Collins predicting it would have come down about 30 to 40km west of the town. People at Mount Isa, Hughenden, Charters Towers, Winton, Blackhall, Giru, and Charleville all reported seeing flaming objects crashing towards Earth. A reader from Cairns said he saw the fireball, but it appeared well north of the city. James Cook University astronomy centre director Associate Professor Graeme White said after hearing the pilot's story and considering the number of centres in Queensland which witnessed the phenomena, it was likely a meteor had broken into fragments that speared through different parts of Queensland. He said it could not be classified as a meteor shower though, as that phenomenom would last for several days. Rural Fire Inspector Lee Skinn, based at Charters Towers where a fireball was also seen, said there were no fires reported in the district. If a burning fireball had impacted, Mr Skinn said he would expected some fires because of the quantity of fuel in western areas. Another pilot who was about five minutes behind Mr Uhr said he did not see any flaming objects in the sky, but saw two large globes glowing on the ground near where Mr Uhr believes the fireball hit. There was a false alarm on Thursday night, when a charter flight pilot thought he saw a repeat of Wednesday's show but the "glowing green object" turned out to be an army flare. ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
