Great ball of fire

[JJuggle]

Yesterday morning at 5:40 am while driving to work I saw a big fireball shoot across the sky headed northward towards Northern New Jersey or New York City. It was a red/yellow fireball with a white tail that appeared suddenly, shot across the sky for a second or two, and then disappeared.

My first reaction was awe. After a moment I braced myself for the mushroom cloud about to rise up ahead of me (9/11 hangover, I suppose). After that didn't happen, I went back to awe.

I've seen fighter jets overhead so I'm certain it wasn't that. And I'm reasonably certain that it wasn't a crashing UFO. So, I have to believe it was some kind of space rock. It was unexpected and quite spectacular.

My area was recently visited by a small rock that crashed into a house in Holmdel a nearby town to my own.

I've reported it to the American Meteorological Society which tracks such things on their Fireball Sightings Log.

[Into the blue]

Goodness gracious!

[JJuggle]

Originally Posted by Into the blue

Goodness gracious!

It was actually in Wales that I had my most vivid experience with fighter jets. Some friends who live in Cheltenham drove us to an old Abbey or Priory near Wye, I believe. We were up on a hill with some kine and all of a sudden there was a massive sonic boom and one jet followed by another flew overhead very close to the hills. I nearly crapped my pants. The kine were unperturbed.

Apparently there is an RAF base nearby that does practice runs over these hills.

[Into the blue]

I know where you mean.
I've been driving in the same area and had two extremely low-flying Hercules transporters pass overhead.
Those things are big.

[phil]

In Wales a common problem can be looking skywards to find a plane you can hear only to notice it zoom past below you, following the line of a valley...

I've been riding home from work along the ridge of the Malvern Hills when a Chinook, a large double-rotored helicopter, suddenly crested the ridge very low and directly over my head; the splitting crack-crack-crack noise of the rotors was absurdly loud, like a machine gun being fired next to your ears. It zoomed over my head then descended down the other side of the hills.

Phil

[spyder]

Originally Posted by phil

In Wales a common problem can be looking skywards to find a plane you can hear only to notice it zoom past below you, following the line of a valley...

That would be awesome to see!

[uni57]

Originally Posted by JJuggle

Yesterday morning at 5:40 am while driving to work I saw a big fireball shoot across the sky headed northward towards Northern New Jersey or New York City.

Reports are starting to come in from Northern New Jersey...

uni57 is OK. Repeat. uni57 is OK.

[phil]

Originally Posted by uni57

uni57 is OK. Repeat. uni57 is OK.

<$DEITY> Dammit, missed again! </$DEITY>

[john_childs]

Great Balls Of Fire! They're aiming for the Southern Hemisphere too.

Falling satellite misses jet by seconds

Google News

[kington99]

Originally Posted by spyder

That would be awesome to see!

Indeed it is, I've many times seen groups of three fighter jets in the valleys of wales, maybe a 100ft off the ground (and the mountains go up to 3000ft). Also I've bveen 'buzzed' by a rescue helicopter while on crib goch, I think they were just bored.

[Into the blue]

Originally Posted by phil

In Wales a common problem can be looking skywards to find a plane you can hear only to notice it zoom past below you, following the line of a valley...

Same thing happened to me last time I was at the top of Llyn Y Fan Fach.
Two jet fighters screamed by at eye level so close I could wave to the pilots.

[phil]

ITB: That impressive photo prompted me to look around a map of that bit of Wales, and there are now a whole load of new entries on my "places to go" list, thank you!

[Hazmat]

Imagine seeing the monsters flying at low levels or within distance of your heads.
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/design/q0188.shtml

[maestro8]

Originally Posted by Hazmat

Imagine seeing the monsters flying at low levels or within distance of your heads.

I don't have to. My home and work are within a couple miles of Moffet Field where huge carrier planes pass overhead a couple times daily. They don't make so much of a noise as do the fighter jets that pass through once in a while. The windows in my office rattle every time they scream past. Luckily, they only fly in during daylight hours, so we can sleep peacefully at night.

On the plus side, it's like having an air show every week... sometimes several jets fly by in formation, landing in tight groups or doing sequences of turns in unison. Nifty!

[Brian MacKenzie]

Does Hardcorecokerrider still have his helicopter license, or is he just cokering in the sky now?