Ice Dropped From Passing Plane Rips Hole In Roof -

A HOMEOWNER discovered a hole in her roof caused by a block of ice, which is thought to have probably crashed through it from a passing aeroplane.

Dr Carla George, 45, was on the telephone when she heard a loud bang on Tuesday 12 September 2023. Thinking the noise was most likely due to some boxes falling in her attic, she was astonished to find she could see a hole through the ceiling and beyond to blue sky, as well as a large block of ice on the floor.

Dr George, a field researcher in criminology, called the Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service. She relates that a firefighter told her the block of ice had possibly fallen on her home in Banbury from an aircraft flying into land at Heathrow airport. The ice had torn a hole through her tiled roof, which it is estimated will cost around £12,000 to repair.

Dr George, who intends to claim on her home insurance for the cost of fixing her roof, said: “I was working in my office room and I heard a loud bang. It’s used as a storage room and I thought it was boxes but I saw the door open and the ceiling completely apart.

“I went up to the attic and saw ice everywhere and I was confused where it had come from – it was like something from a movie. I was in shock.

“My neighbour rang the doorbell and said, ‘Do you know there’s a hole in the roof?’. It was so unusual. “I thought it was some sort of explosion when I got up there.”

Although the fire service thought a passing aeroplane was the most likely source of the fallen ice block, the homeowner said she hadn’t noticed hearing any planes overhead on the day.

She said: “We do have planes flying over but I didn’t hear any that day and neither did my neighbour, so that was really surprising.”

A temporary cover was fixed over the hole in the roof by the Oxfordshire roofers while they wait for a surveyor to assess the full extent of the damage.

Dr George added, “The blocks of ice took a whole day to melt. At the moment we still have the hole in the inner ceiling – you can see the lining from the outside. At least it’s all covered by the insurance and at least it didn’t hit any other rooms and there were no injuries – just me being shocked and trying to process the whole thing!”

Iced Aircrafts

Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue said the roof damage is thought to have been caused by a large lump of ice which fell from the sky. When long haul flight aircrafts reach altitudes of up to 35,000 feet, any moisture formed on the undercarriage is turned into ice in the -40oC—50oC air temperature.

As the aeroplane descends for landing, the ambient temperature drops and any ice formation will begin to melt and fall away from the aircraft.

In addition, clear air turbulence (areas of warmer air high up in the atmosphere) are becoming far more common due to climate change. Research undertaken by Paul Williams and colleagues at the University of Reading found that turbulence in the North Atlantic jet stream increased in frequency by 17 to 55 per cent from 1979 to 2020.

Banbury is north east of Heathrow airport and almost half of traffic departs from the airport on a north easterly trajectory, the flight path website My Neighbourhood reveals. However, normally planes would be flying at quite a high altitude when passing the area so that residents are unaware of the flights in the sky above them.

The post Ice Dropped from Passing Plane Rips Hole in Roof appeared first on Roofing Today.