[meteorite-list] Massachusetts Residents Report Hearing Sonic Boom, Seeing Fireball

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:54:03 2004
Message-ID: <200202110311.TAA08954_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/041/region/Western_Mass_residents_report_:.shtml

Western Mass. residents report hearing sonic boom, seeing fireball
Associated Press
February 10, 2002

State public safety officials found no evidence of a plane crash after receiving
calls from residents who heard a sonic boom or saw a fireball Saturday
afternoon in western and central Massachusetts.

Police, firefighters, airports and the state emergency management agency
received calls at about 2:30 p.m. on Saturday from residents who variously
described seeing a fireball in the sky or hearing a sonic boom and an
explosion.

''We believe it could have been a meteorite,'' trooper David Paine, a state
police spokesman, said Sunday.

One man, identified only as a captain in the Montgomery fire department, told
state police he saw a flaming object fly past and land in the woods off Main
Road in Montgomery at about 2:15 p.m.

''There were a number of calls for sighting of fireballs and sounds of sonic
booms in Russell, Montgomery, Pittsfield and into New York state,'' state
police spokesman Lt. Paul C. Maloney said Saturday. ''We did send an aircraft
in the areas (where the sightings were reported) and they saw nothing at that
time.''

The Federal Aviation Administration, which received calls from southern
Vermont and western and central Massachusetts, said it had no reports of
missing aircraft and had been told by the North American Aerospace Defense
Command there were no military activities taking place.

A dispatcher at the Connecticut state police barracks in North Canaan,
Conn., said one caller said the object looked like a long metal item, and another
said it looked like a piece of metal with a fireball.
Received on Sun 10 Feb 2002 10:11:17 PM PST