[meteorite-list] Meteorite triggers panic calls to police

From: Michael Groetz <mpg4444_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:44:41 -0400
Message-ID: <ad733150910150544ua07c24fr4f30f4356444fd1e_at_mail.gmail.com>

http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/bild-english/world-news/2009/10/13/ufo-scare-northern-germany/shooting-star-meteorite-creates-panic.html

UFO scare in Germany as shooting star appears in sky

Panic broke out in northern Germany after hundreds of frightened
residents called police over what they thought was a UFO.

What appears to have actually been a meteorite created a flood of
calls to police and fire departments on Tuesday evening from worried
people.

Officials in Bremen, Hamburg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony
received calls from concerned citizens about a ?burning ball? and
?bright object in the sky.?

?All of a sudden there was a ball-of-light in the sky, definitely
bigger than a shooting star,? said Christian Pokropp (30) to BILD.de.

The man was jogging along the river Elbe in Hamburg and saw the
"shining ball" at 6:50pm.

?The people along the river watched the spectacle as if magnetized,?
said Pokropp.

?It lasted about six seconds before the object broke into four parts
and looked like a small fireball, which began to dim. For minutes you
could make out streaks of smoke in the sky.?

After several calls, the police department in Bremen alerted aviation
authorities and dispatched a patrol car. A spokesperson for the Bremen
Police Department, Dirk Siemering, told BILD.de: ?It remains
mysterious.?

According to Siemering, callers saw the ball ?crumble apart and fall
to the ground.? Others eye-witnesses reported a big explosion.

After an emergency call in Neubrandenburg, police controlled the area
around Waren. ?We first checked to see if any gas tanks or natural gas
was burning somewhere,? explained another spokesperson.

A driver reported seeing ?something burning green about 10 kilometers
away? while driving on Bundesstrasse 192 between Neubrandenburg and
Waren.

According to ?Express? one witness posted on an Internet forum: ?This
evening I saw a weird green glowing ball with a fiery tail falling
through sky in Dortmund between the train station and U-Turm.

"Somehow it dissolved in the sky. First I thought it was a rocket, but
its trajectory was too weird.?

Hobby astronomer Werner Walter, who runs a UFO research network called
CENAP in Mannheim, fielded calls and reports until the late night from
witnesses in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Hamburg and North
Rhine-Westphalia.

According to Walter's reports, eye-witnesses described a ?white-green
glowing ball? with a tail that raced downwards ?silently for several
seconds?.

But what did people actually see in the sky?

Walter assumes that the phenomenon was a shooting star which fell into
the earth?s atmosphere and disintegrated.
Received on Thu 15 Oct 2009 08:44:41 AM PDT