gei_spot

Mysterious ice chunk falls in Loma Linda
Elizabeth Fernandez, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, April 14, 2006


(04-14) 13:30 PDT LOMA LINDA (San Bernardino County) -- Oakland isn't the only California city to experience a mysterious chunk of ice hurtling from the sky this week. In Loma Linda, a block of ice estimated to be the size of a microwave oven crashed through a metal roof of a recreational center Thursday.

"I've been in the fire service for 31 years, I've heard and read about these things, but I've never seen this in person,'' said Rolland Crawford, division chief of the Loma Linda Fire Department.

Two tennis players were batting a ball around outside the Drayson Center at Loma Linda University Thursday morning when they heard a strange sound, Crawford said.

"They described it as the sound an artillery shell would make -- shoosh, shoosh,'' he said. "They looked up. They didn't see the ice, nor did they see a plane.''

At the time, Loma Linda was enjoying a classic spring day, blue skies with not a cloud in sight and temperatures in the 60s.

The ice slammed into the gymnasium roof, pushing through metal, wood and insulation and landing near a wall. No one was injured and even the gym floor was spared damage.

Opaque, a brilliant white with black specks that might have been inflicted upon its crash landing, the ice tore a hole that measured about 2 � 1/2 feet by 1 foot, Crawford said.

While the slab broke apart on impact, the largest chunk retrieved was the size of a bowling ball. The university put that chunk into a freezer for safekeeping.

"The ice was not blue, it was not clear, it was completely white,'' Crawford said.

Crawford believes the ice toppled from a passing, unheard airplane. Loma Linda is in the flight path of aircraft flying to Ontario Airport with much additional air traffic heading east to Los Angeles International Airport.

"It's not a meteor,'' said Crawford. "Space objects tend to burn up -- this looked like a piece of ice you'd find on the side of a road in the mountains.''

The FAA will be investigating the incident and may have some answers in terms of identifying aircraft in the vicinity.

But some residents of Oakland, who experienced a similar phenomenon, are simply living with a mystery.

On Saturday morning, a giant chunk of ice splashed down on Bushrod Park along Shattuck Avenue. No one was injured by the ice which, like Loma Linda's was clear and created a similarly- sized crater measuring 2 feet wide and 1 � 1/2 feet deep.

The hazardous-materials team of the Oakland Fire Department analyzed the contents and found that the ice contained nothing more mysterious than water.

__________________
I'm a member of the "PbxInfo Gang"