12/13/2005 10:52:01 A.M. Pacific Standard Time
ORDO
ab KAO UPDATE: Many witnesses reported hearing an aircraft in the area at
the time of the blasts.
Dont just dismiss this because the odds are literally astronomical. My wife
and I live 10 miles south of buncefield and the explosion woke us instantly.
I rushed to the window and soon saw the mushroom cloud rising, this would
be within the first minute. My wife joined me and at that moment we saw one,
possible a double meteor pass across the sky at approx 20 degrees to the
horizon just above the cloud travelling sw to ne. I have been interested
in astronomy for many years and know exactly what a meteor looks like. For
the record its a meteor if it does not touch ground and a meteorite if it
does.
Did radar spot anything or astronomy groups monitor the shower?
The time and direction makes it possible that the meteor I saw was from the
Geminid meteor shower but I have not been able to confirm that this regular
meteor shower has a reputation for fragments large enough to reach the ground.
Some people have reported the sounds of a plane shortly before the explosion
but the police have insisted that it could not be a plane. If those people
are sure that they heard something it could easily have been a meteor as
witnesses have often stated that meteor can make all kinds of noises.
Meteors often fragment as they enter the atmosphere so it is possible that
evidence might be found in the vicinity.
I repeat that the odds are against this explanation and it is much more likely
to be human error or mechanical failure but I know what I saw and the odds
of seing a very bright meteor within a minute of our largest peacetime explosion
are very long also.