Mystery metal object fell from the sky, just missing cop's head

boing
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The straight-down is pretty plausible if falling from altitude. Drag will quickly bleed off that forward momentum, leaving just the gravity component. Heavier components are less affected. This is why an aircraft that suffers a mid-air breakup leaves a long debris field.

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Good to know.
Wouldn’t it have damaged the sidewalk, though? If it had fallen from a plane flying over?
I don’t have any other ideas of where it may have fallen from, other than maybe the roof, but the way it was reported in the paper had me thinking it couldn’t possibly have fallen from much height…

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This is why I prefaced my original post with “pics or it didn’t happen”

I don’t believe this part fell from the sky. I think the cop is spinning a yarn.

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Oh, right.
This is the article from yesterday:

(Not sure if it’s paywalled.)

A couple bits from the end:

“I can’t immediately see anything that would indicate that was from an aircraft,” Jolda said. “It would have had to put a good hole in the airplane.”

And if the object had fallen from an airplane, Jolda said, it would have hit the ground with some force.

“If it came from an airplane, it would not come straight down; it would have had some horizontal velocity to it. It would have done some damage,” he said. “If a plane were traveling at 80 knots (92 mph), that’s serious.”

Moss said there was no significant damage to the granite walkway near the entrance to the building, where the object struck.

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Graphite crucible to melt copper or other metals? (Thanks Google!)

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They have better aim.

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I wouldn’t take it for granite! :wink:

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Joke Drums GIF by Bax Music

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With a high enough altitude (must have been very high since the aircraft was neither seen nor heard; 40,000 feet?), the part – once freed and immediately starting to lose forward velocity – would have eventually begun to fall “normal” to the ground — all vertical.

(BTW: I wouldn’t trust anything a cop had to say.)

Whoa! @anon87143080 got there ahead of me. :blush:

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