53 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
53 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: UPI, FIREBALL OVER THE U.S. FILE: UFO1250
|
|
|
|
|
|
4 01-20-89 11:42 pes
|
|
|
|
(complete writethru _ reports of fires in arkansas)
|
|
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (UPI) _ A streaking object, probably a
|
|
Soviet rocket body re-entering the atmosphere, left a fiery trail across
|
|
the night sky Friday, and falling debris may have caused two fires in
|
|
Arkansas, authorities said.
|
|
The object, which prompted thousands of calls in several states,
|
|
entered the atmosphere across the central United States shortly after 7
|
|
p.m. MST, going from southwest to northeast, officials at the North
|
|
American Aerospace Defense Command said. There were reports from people
|
|
in Texas, Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas who had seen the flaming
|
|
object.
|
|
"Our best estimation is that it was the re-entry of a Soviet
|
|
rocket body associated with a launch that took place last year," said
|
|
Commander Dugald Gillis, a NORAD spokesman.
|
|
Authorities in rural northwestern Arkansas reported two mysterious
|
|
fires possibly caused by the space debris, and some Washington County
|
|
sheriff's deputies reported the object passed over their heads.
|
|
"We didn't locate any actual debris," said Sheriff's Sgt. James
|
|
Cantrell, who did not see the object, but collected reports on it. "We
|
|
had a couple of fires mysteriously started, but it being dark, we didn't
|
|
locate anything. We'll probably go out tomorrow morning and look over
|
|
the area."
|
|
Sheriff's officers and volunteer firefighters rushed to the fires
|
|
to check out reports of a possible small plane crash in the rural area
|
|
about 4 miles southwest of the town of West Fork, Cantrell said.
|
|
"Some of the deputies reported seeing it, so did some of the
|
|
firemen and ambulance personnel. While they were standing around, this
|
|
object went over," Cantrell said.
|
|
Reports of the distance varied with some deputies and firefighters
|
|
saying the burning object came as close as 200 yards and others saying
|
|
it appeared to be a couple of miles above the ground.
|
|
"Everybody said it looked like a rocket and had a blue-green fire
|
|
from the tail of it," Cantrell said of the 10 to 15 sightings reported
|
|
to his department. "They could tell it was a rocket. They knew it
|
|
wasn't a meteor or something. It had a cone or cigar shape."
|
|
The debris apparently started two small fires in the rural area,
|
|
each about 100 square yards in size, Cantrell said. The nearest house
|
|
was about a half-mile away.
|
|
In Texas, thousands of people telephoned radio and television
|
|
stations after sighting the object flash across the northeastern sky.
|
|
A control tower operator at a Dallas airport, Love Field, said a
|
|
pilot sitting in his plane on the ground informed the tower he had seen
|
|
the object and that it resembled a meteor fireball.
|
|
|
|
|
|
**********************************************
|
|
* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
|
|
********************************************** |