Chunk of ice crashes through roof of Colorado home

[November 19, 2009]  BRUSH, Colo. (AP) -- A basketball-sized chunk of ice crashed through the roof of a family's Colorado home after apparently falling from an airplane passing overhead. Danelle Hagan and her 9-year-old daughter were at home in Brush on Saturday when they heard the kitchen ceiling come crashing down. They were not injured.

"I hear a huge, what sounded like an explosion. And I look over and my kitchen is basically in shambles," Hagan told KMGH-TV in Denver. "It was very terrifying."

The Federal Aviation Administration was sending investigators to the home to investigate whether the ice came from an airplane. The Hagans put some of the ice in their freezer.

FAA spokesman Mike Fergus said Wednesday the ice chunk appears to be "Rime ice," which can build up on the outside of a plane's fuselage when it flies through cold and wet air.

Fergus says that it doesn't appear the ice was "blue ice," which comes from an airplane's toilet.

After investigators determine whether the ice came from a plane, Fergus said they'll look at which planes are in the area at the time to see if it's possible to tell which craft dropped the ice.

Fergus said that in cases of falling blue ice, FAA investigators would inspect any plane that was in the area to make sure it doesn't have a dangerous pressure leak. He said that ice falls from airplanes are alarming, but extremely rare.

He said the chances of getting hit by ice from a plane is "on the magnitude of a lightning strike."

Hagan's family is staying out of the house until it's repaired because the crash loosened some asbestos. She says people were in the kitchen just before the ice fell, so they're just glad to be OK.

"If we had been in that kitchen, it would have been devastating," Hagan said.

[Associated Press]

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