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FAA: Fine, Maybe Frozen Airplane Poo Fell Onto LI Houses
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 11, 2012
Modified Sep 11, 2012
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 11, 2012
Modified Sep 11, 2012
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Two sets of Long Island homeowners have holes in their roofs and it seems like air travelers' frozen waste are to blame. A Valley Stream resident said that when she reported a hole in her roof, cops determined it wasn't a break-in and, according to WCBS 2, "Her roofer found a brown, wet stain inside the damaged attic. He said he can’t imagine anything strong enough to make that kind of hole other than falling debris from an airplane."
Lois Farella says around around 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, a loud bang woke her and her husband up, "I looked around — no breeze, no rain, nothing." Then they found a huge hole in their roof. Neighbor Ann Grace's house was also damaged, and her roofer, Bryan Lanzello, said, "That’s a lot of blunt force that did that [and it] was coming from a distance. It blew through and inch and a half of shingles and those shingles are tough. It’s hard to understand what could have done this. It had to have come from a plane. A bird couldn’t have done it."
The FAA is now sending an inspector inspect the homes in case it is "blue ice," which Wikipedia explains is "frozen sewage material dispensed mid-flight from commercial aircraft lavatory waste tanks, a biowaste mixture of human waste and liquid disinfectant that freezes at high altitude. The name comes from the blue color of the disinfectant. Airlines are not allowed to dump their waste tanks in mid-flight, and pilots have no mechanism by which to do so; however, leaks can occur."
The FAA itself tries to knock down the "myth" of blue ice, but in this case, they'll see what planes were flying over Valley Stream on Sunday and see if anyone had leaks. As if any airline would admit it! We really need Mulder and Scully on this.
Tagged
airplane
blue ice
faa
long island
valley stream
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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