attributed to him, Getty Images
The English are often very concerned about the weather, but a man from Berkshire, west of London, has specific reasons to worry about the sky.
He was relaxing in his garden when he was “hurt very badly” by human waste that had fallen from a plane.
The ‘craps rain’ occurred in mid-July, but it just surfaced. Speaking to the Royal Aviation Forum Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, councilwoman Karen Davies said the taxpayer called her and was “terrified” when she learned of the “terrible” incident.
She explained that “the entire garden of the house and his umbrellas and the man himself was covered with excrement.”
How did this happen? And do we all need to keep looking up at the sky?
What happened?
The man lives in Windsor, a town famous for housing a castle owned by the British royal family. But the area is also close to the flight path to Heathrow, the largest of the five airports serving London.
“I know there are a number of accidents every year because of frozen sewage from airplanes,” Davis said. “But what fell this time did not freeze and the entire garden of the man was littered in a very bad way.”
attributed to him, Getty Images
Airplanes landing at Heathrow fly over Windsor regularly
She added, “He was in the park at the time, so it was a really horrific experience. We hope it never happens to any of our residents again.”
Another consultant, John Bowden, called the incident “a chance in a billion.”
He noted that hot weather means the droppings can “fall off like a ‘more resilient’ item.”
How does this happen?
Airplane toilets store human waste in special tanks, which are usually emptied once the plane has landed.
But international aviation authorities are aware that leaks can occur during flights.
The BBC spoke to aviation expert Julian Bray about how a hailstorm happens.
“Modern planes have a vacuum toilet, so it’s very safe and airtight,” Bray says. “The problem is the vacuum connection between the toilet mechanism and the storage tank.”
“But it’s not possible to have a 100% airtight seal, as a little bit of flexibility is needed, as the plane goes through different pressure levels.”
“What seems to have happened is that when the plane reached the ground at 1,800 metres, the pressure changed. There was a leak and unfortunately the gentleman in this park – not to mention his parachutes – got hit by this substance,” Bray says.
Are such leaks common?
attributed to him, Getty Images
Planes usually follow each other to land on a line at that time – here, a plane flies through the turbulence caused by what lies ahead.
“Fortunately, this is a very rare event. It has been happening for a long time. This thing called blue ice has been falling very often,” Bray said.
He explained that this mass of droppings is called icy blue more than any other color because it is a mixture of urine and disinfectant.
“It was happening, not very regularly, but it did happen. It was falling like some kind of ice cube. It wasn’t very nice,” he added.
Paul de Iver, the man who saw one of these blue ice falling, described his experience to the BBC.
“I was leaving Princess Margaret Hospital and an Air Canada plane flew over Heathrow,” Paul explained. “Some pigeon snow fell off the fuselage and two or three branches of a pine tree fell ten feet in front of me.”
Paul considers himself lucky to be alive and believes the Berkshire resident should consider himself lucky as well.
“I think the guy who got hit by the rain was very lucky, because if the ice was blue, he would have died,” he said.
The British Civil Aviation Authority told the BBC in 2016 that around 25 drops of ‘blue ice’ are reported each year in the 2.5 million annual flights over UK airspace, but of course this happens everywhere.
international accidents
Among the “victims” of the “involuntary evacuation from a plane” are some of the unfortunate attendees in the US state of Pennsylvania.
Joe Cambrai of Levittown told local television that his daughter’s 16th birthday party was ruined when “something bad rained at the party”.
Fortunately, the umbrella they set up for the party protects most of the guests.
An ice ball that fell on a village in the northern Indian state of Haryana in January 2018 is believed to have frozen human excrement that leaked from a plane.
“Big avalanche” fell in the village of Fadilpur Badli, weighing 10 kilograms.
A local official told the BBC that some residents believed it was an “extraterrestrial” creature. “I heard they took samples home,” he said.
attributed to him, Gurgaon Police
A piece of ice weighing 10 kilograms fell in the village of Vadilpur Badli in northern India
The Times of India reported that a 60-year-old woman actually developed a suspicious football-sized lump of blue ice in December 2015.
In India, as in many other countries, it is considered good luck when a bird defecates on a person, but as the unfortunate Indian woman found out, there is nothing to celebrate when she bumps into other types of droppings that fall from the sky. .
She sustained a serious shoulder injury, but eyewitnesses say she only died because a snowball fell on the roof of a house before hitting her.
Spread the risk
Bray has good news for the Windsor victim: Air authorities are changing the way planes approach airports.
“They’re going to do what they call the funnel system. Right now, it’s a linear system and all the planes follow each other,” Bray said.
Bray says that because planes don’t run too narrow a path, the risk is much greater,” which means those near airports can expect a reduction in these accidents.
But other people who live far from airports can enter the danger zone.
Bray says the Windsor victim should file a claim for damages.
The name of the airline was not released to the BBC, although Davies said the man had called the airline, which denied his plane was in the area. But he later confirmed when the boy was able to identify the plane through an app showing flight paths.
Andrew Hall, who was present at the virtual board meeting, said the victim would do the right thing if he sought significant compensation.
“Sewage companies are fined millions for pouring sewage into rivers,” he said. “When an airplane throws feces over people’s heads, I think it’s something more hideous, frankly.”
Davis said the resident decided not to file a compensation claim.
“Obviously he wouldn’t do that because of some lawn umbrellas, so he had to kind of accept it,” she said.
The BBC contacted the UK Civil Aviation Authority for comment, but received no response several days later.
Another source reluctant to discuss this is the same man who was the target of the recent faeces storm. Although British newspapers were interested in his story, he vehemently refused to discuss the details.
The British penchant for discussing what descends from heaven seems to have its limits.
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