Eryn's Quandary

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Shocked by bolt from the blue

A four and a half inch bolt that appears to have fallen from a plane.Photo: Jon Reid
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Jano Gibson and David BraithwaiteOctober 18, 2006 - 1:30PM
Air safety authorities are investigating reports an 11 centimetre-long bolt fell off an aircraft and smashed through the roof of a Sydney home this morning.
Five Dock resident Angelo Margiotta, who has a heart condition, was in his kitchen when he heard a loud bang above his Preston Avenue home shortly before 9am.
"I was sitting at the kitchen table having my coffee at about 8.30am and I heard a big, big, big loud bang,'' he said.
He said the noise was louder than a gun shot.
"I used to go hunting. I used to shoot rabbits. I know the noise a gunshot makes. This is worse than a gunshot.''
Mr Margiotta contacted firefighters who found a tile "which appeared to have high speed impact damage," NSW Fire Brigades spokesman, Inspector Gordon Boath, said.
"On closer inspection a firefighter found a bolt in the roof. Suspecting that it may have come from an aircraft, the Civil Aviation and Safety Authority [CASA] and the Australian Transportation Safety Bureau were notified and any investigations have been left with them."
One aircraft engineer, who did not want to be named, said the size (about 12cm) and the presence of a serial number indicated it was an aviation bolt.
"You don't buy bolts like that from Bunnings," he said.However, it could have come from any part of a plane of any size, he said.
CASA will today visit Mr Margiotta's home to examine the bolt, the authority's spokesman, Peter Gibson, said.
"If it is from a plane, it will have a serial number on the bolt and with a bit of detective work we will be able to trace it back to the aircraft type and then from there we will attempt to identify which plane it may have come from," he said.
"But that's all making the assumption that it did come from an aircraft [and] there's no evidence at this stage that it did come from a plane."
If the bolt had no serial number "we will declare it an unknown bolt from the blue," he said.
Mr Gibson said CASA had investigated three reports over the past ten years of bolt-like objects falling from the sky into Sydney homes.
"All three turned out not to be from planes. You've got to be careful not to jump to the conclusion that just because it fell out of the sky it came from a plane."

posted by Eryn @ 12:24 pm