George Cunningham and the hole in his ceiling. Photo / Hawkes Bay Today
Experts are mystified by an unidentified flying object that crashed through the roof of a Hawke's Bay home.
Nightshift worker George Cunningham woke about 5pm on Wednesday to find a fist-like hole in his lounge ceiling and a piece of rusty iron on the floor.
His wife Helen,
who was at work when the object landed, said it could have killed someone standing in its path. "It's come through with the force of a bullet. The roof wasn't dented, it was a clean-cut hole."
Sergeant Ray Kirby, who is in charge of the case, described the hunk as arch-shaped, 10cm long and 5cm wide. "To me, it looks like a drumshoe from a brake."
The velocity of its descent suggests it fell from the sky, rather than being thrown.
An aviation expert and a Civil Aviation Authority aeronautical engineer have examined the object and agree it wasn't an aircraft part. "It's too heavy. Generally aircraft are made out of alloy," said Hawke's Bay Aviation chief executive Wattie Solomon, who also ruled out satellite and space station parts for the same reason.
