In a bizarre incident that has left authorities scratching their collective heads, a large chunk of ice fell from the sky and smashed into the roof of a family home in Palm Coast, Florida. The strange event occurred at 3:36pm on Monday, February 3, and is being described as “crazy” by locals.
According to WPTV, no injuries were reported, though the lump of ice did manage to penetrate the roof of a local residence, which has left a gaping hole in its wake.
A snippet of footage recorded by a neighbor has been released online, which shows the damage that the freak accident has wreaked on the Palm Coast property. The caption in the video reads, “Welp this is the first! A huge piece of ice fell from the sky!” In the video, a local explains:
There was an incident where a piece of ice went through the next door neighbor’s. The next door neighbor saw the ice fall from the sky. […] Fire department, police officers here are trying to figure [it] out. I mean, obviously, it must’ve come from a plane. I mean, where else could it come from? […] It just sounded like a big bomb went off or something.
Neighbor from Palm Coast, via Reddit
While the authorities are still investigating what happened, most incidents that involve large pieces of ice like these are usually related to aircraft in phenomena known as blue ice. Essentially, due to the high altitude, the frozen sewage material from lavatory waste systems aboard aircraft are known to leak on rare occasions.
Of course, aircraft are not permitted to dump their waste tanks mid-flight, though leaks do occur leading to rare incidents like these. One incident, for example, occurred in Leicester, UK in 2007 and saw a piece of blue ice plummet from the sky, piercing a rooftop. Between 1979 and 2003, there have been 27 documented incidents of blue ice in the U.S.
With officials continuing their investigation, the remaining ice that fell in the Florida neighborhood has since been removed. However, some witnesses have noticed that the ice doesn’t appear to have the signature blue color that is often associated with the liquid disinfectant typically found in blue ice.
