[meteorite-list] Object Falls From The Sky and Hits House in Monahans, Texas

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:00:08 2004
Message-ID: <200207191546.IAA13810_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

Deja vu. A meteorite did fall in Monahans, Texas in March 1998.

I guess now you can add 'bomb from fighter jet' to the list of
things known to have fallen out of the sky.

Ron Baalke

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http://www.mywesttexas.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=2288&dept_id=475621&newsid=4775432&PAG=461&rfi=9

Air Force recovers 'dummy bomb' from Monahans house
By Ed Todd
Midland Reporter-Telegram (Texas)
July 18, 2002

MONAHANS, TEXAS - United States Air Force bomb technicians on Wednesday were
removing from beneath Gloria Aker's east-side house a 25-pound inert steel
practice bomb.

Essence of the last words which Rosa Armenta recalled telling her daughter
just before the olive-drab (OD) military practice bomb shot like lightning
into her house was "God bless you. Take care."

And all was well, though unsettled, as it turned out. No one was injured.

"They were lucky, really lucky," Mrs. Armenta said on mid-afternoon
Wednesday.

Her daughter, Gloria Aker, 35, and her daughter's children, Sarah Tarin, 17,
and, Andrew Aker, 9, were safe but frightened.

"I am still in shock," Ms. Aker said a day after the crashing boom of the
inert bomb disrupted her family's life. "I am very grateful that my kids are
fine. They are still alive."

At moment of the crash, Ms. Aker said she had envisioned lightning striking
the house.

"It was creepy," said her son, Andrew. A day later, "I just feel all right."

His sister, Sarah, said "Everyone thought it was a meteorite, but it turned
out to be a 25-pound (dummy) bomb."

United States Air Force bomb technicians on Wednesday were removing from
beneath Ms. Aker's east-side house a 25-pound inert steel practice bomb. The bomb
had somehow dislodged from a F-117A Nighthawk fighter on a practice-bombing
run out of its home base at Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogardo, New
Mexico about 200 miles west of Monahans.

Monahans, a oilfield-ranching town of 6,821 people, is about 50 miles west
of Midland.

"We are trying to determine what went awry," said Air Force Maj. Greg
McClure, a 35-year-old civil engineer who was at site of the incident. He is
a member of Holloman AFB's Air Combat Command.

Three inert practice bombs had dropped from the F-117A: one shot through a
towering cottonwood tree and into the Gloria Aker house about 2:50 p.m.
Tuesday, and the others fell in remote areas of Pecos and Maljamar, N.M.

Altitude of the F-117A, a $45 million Mach 0.9 stealth fighter manufactured
for the USAF since 1982 by the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, at time
of the "unintended release" in the Monahans area was not available, McClure
said.

"The investigation, hopefully, will tell us exactly what happened," McClure
said. "The investigation ... is going to be extremely thorough."

The aircraft's pilot "made it back safely, and nobody on the ground was
injured, either," McClure said. "That is really fortunate."

Tuesday's inadvertent release of the dummy bombs was "the only time this has
happened in the history -- about 20 years -- of the stealth aircraft,"
McClure said.

"We thought it was a meteorite at first," Monahans City Secretary Lorena
Marquez said of the Monahans dummy bomb in referring to a meteorite that had
fallen on Monahans in March 1998 and got national press coverage. "Just
luck, I guess," as it turned out.

The USAF's F-117A, of which there are about 50 in active duty, are based at
Holloman AFB, according to aviation sources.

The aircraft's "practice ranges are in isolated areas many, many miles from
any kind of populated areas," McClure said. The unintended Monahans release
was outside the F-117A's Pecos practice area.

Now that the dummy bomb was recovered about 24 hours after it had crashed
into the Gloria Aker house, McClure said that the USAF "absolutely" will
compensate the family and work with the family in repairing the damaged
house to its prior condition "or better." Construction work would include
repairing the roof and ceiling, the bathroom, a wall and the closet area of
Sarah's bedroom.

The practice bomb had plowed through the house's concrete foundation and
into about four feet of sandy soil.

At the moment of the crash, Ms. Aker was in the living room of her
three-bedroom, two-bath house and was talking on the telephone to her
mother. Her daughter was there with her. Ms. Aker's son, Andrew, was in his
bedroom to get a coloring book since the family was readying to leave home
to visit Ms. Aker's sister in Odessa.

"I am glad they are all right now," 55-year-old Danny Armenta said of his
daughter and his two grandchildren. "Material things can be replaced," he
said. "Human lives can't."

His granddaughter, Sarah, said the crashing sound was "like a firecracker
but much louder.

"And all of a sudden, this cloud of dust just came through the house," Sarah
said. "The first thing that came to my mind was my little brother. I thought
something had happened to him. And he came out of the room, and we ran out
of the house and notified police and everything."

In turn, about a hour or two later, Holloman AFB officials notified Monahans
police of the source of the crash.

Dale George, 43, of Monahans just happened to be looking toward the
cottonwood tree neighboring the Gloria Aker house when the F-117A dummy bomb
struck the house.

"It sounded like a bottle-rocket," George said. "It hissed and it popped. I
heard it, and I saw a smoke trail" between the cottonwood tree and the
house.

Monahans Police Chief Charles Sebastian, who recalled the 1998 meteorite,
noted the crashing of the dummy practice bomb into Monahans was "an unusual
situation. It could happen to anyone.

"It goes with training," said Sebastian, who is an Air Force flight-crew
veteran. "The more training you do -- that's the reason we train is to get
all of the mistakes taken care of before we actually have to use it" in
warfare.

Sebastian said the USAF was "taking care of the problem" and has been
"really good.

"The (Gloria Aker house) received minimal damage," the police chief said,
"and the most important thing -- nobody did get hurt."
Received on Fri 19 Jul 2002 11:46:17 AM PDT