Mystery fireball streaks across Texas sky
By News8austihn
2-15-09
What looked like a fireball streaked across the Texas sky Sunday morning, leading many people to call authorities to report seeing falling debris.
Preliminary reports from Williamson County officials said a small aircraft went down, and then officials said it was likely space debris from two satellites crashing.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Sunday that it received numerous reports across Texas of falling debris, which could have been related to a recent U.S.-Russian satellite collision.
FAA spokesman Roland Herwig said officials suspected the debris could be related to the collision, but he said that had not been confirmed.
News 8 received numerous calls saying debris was falling around midmorning Sunday, what looked like a meteor. Some of the callers reported what looked like a fireball in the sky.
Williamson County officials combed the area in a helicopter searching for any trace of a small aircraft landing, but were unable to find anything.
The FAA notified pilots on Saturday to be aware of possible space debris after a collision Tuesday between U.S. and Russian communication satellites.
The chief of Russia's Mission Control said clouds of debris from the collision will circle Earth for thousands of years and threaten numerous satellites.
The debris field from the collision is described as huge, but scientists are still trying to determine the full scope of the crash.
Do we notice the upper right hand side of the picture a what appears to be a brightly lighted craft with possibly a helicopter above it? Our elder brothers on station burning off a nuclear warhead?
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