[meteorite-list] Fireball Seen Over Ohio

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:48:10 2004
Message-ID: <200110051736.KAA20387_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.ohio.com/bj/news/docs/000726.htm

Everyone has opinion about streak of light

NASA spokesman suggests a showy type of meteor

BY CAROL BILICZKY
The Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio)
October 4, 2001

Many area residents report seeing a swift streak of light shoot across the
sky on Tuesday. It may have been a bolide -- a big meteor that explodes into
a shower of colors as it enters the Earth's atmosphere.

That suggestion comes from David DeFelice, a spokesman for NASA's Glenn
Research Center in Brook Park. He saw the fireball while at his son's
baseball game in Medina's Mellert Park about 7:30 p.m.

``At first I thought it was a bottle rocket or fireworks, but there was no
sound, so I knew it was something different,'' DeFelice said. ``The light
fizzled before it hit the ground -- bright green, with some oranges and
yellows. Whatever I saw was not staying intact.''

Residents throughout Northeast Ohio stopped driving and honked their horns
as they saw the fireball streak from west to east. One concerned Akron
resident called the fire department to his Reed Avenue home. Some were
alarmed, what with the terrorist attacks and inflamed world situation.

Yet no one can say for sure what it was. Eyewitness accounts differ, and no
authority is charged with tracking these phenomena.

Some people say the fireball had sparks; others say it didn't. Some say the
flash of light lasted for a couple of seconds, others for as long as 10.
Some say it was shaped like a football; others say it wasn't. One person
reported that a low-flying plane followed the fireball -- with its own
lights off.

Doris Moore of West Akron was leaving the Lawton Street Community Center
with her husband, Robert, when the flash of light caught their attention.
``It was beautiful,'' she said. ``I said o-o-o-o-o and thought I'd see more,
but I didn't.''

David Richards, director of the Hoover-Price Planetarium at the McKinley
Museum and National Memorial in Canton, immediately suggested that the
streak was a bolide, although he didn't see it.

``It may have fallen to Earth, or it may have burned up,'' he said.
``They're very high, but they look very low.''

Yet there appears to be no end of suggestions on what it could be.

Akron Fire Department spokesman Mark Finney said some firefighters think the
light was an orange and white blimp that is docked near the Rubber Bowl but
could have been in the air at the time.

And Goodyear Tire & Rubber caretaker Ike Fuller found a collapsed
contraption near the world headquarters yesterday morning -- a big garbage
bag, full of pop cans cut horizontally in half and filled with candles.

At first, he dumped the contraption in the trash. Then he heard co-workers
talking about the fireball in the sky and began to suspect that the
sightings were the work of ingenious kids who had created their own
unidentified flying object.

If so, those kids have already worked their magic on Moore of Akron.

``I'm hoping it wasn't one of those UFOs,'' she said cheerfully. ``If nobody
saw it but me, they'll think I'm crazy.''

Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or
cbiliczky_at_thebeaconjournal.com
Received on Fri 05 Oct 2001 01:36:39 PM PDT