Object Crashes Through Roof, Disturbs Woman, 81

A five-pound piece of polished steel, believed to have come from an airplane, crashed through the roof and into the living room of a house in South-Central Los Angeles Friday night, frightening an 81-year-old woman who was watching television a few feet away.

No one was injured.

But Mrs. Blanche Rebert of 713 Colden Avenue said she was disturbed.

“I didn’t know what it was,” she said. “And even though it knocked a hole in the roof and the ceiling, for the longest time we couldn’t even find the thing. After it came inside, it hid . . . “

Mrs. Rebert’s daughter, Gwendolyn Chetwynd, said she was in the kitchen and heard “what sounded like a little bomb” in the living room. “I thought my mother’d been hurt,” she said, “and I ran in there and there was a hole in the ceiling . . . but nothing else.”

Mrs. Chetwynd said she went outside, and saw that there was a hole in the roof of the one-story house.

“So I went back and my mother and my brother, Lloyd, and my daughter, Nicole, and I all hunted around to try to find what was in there with us. And finally Nicole found it, where it had rolled under an end table.”

She said the object was cylindrical, about 5 1/2 inches long and 3 inches wide, made of polished steel. She called Los Angeles police, who sent two officers to take charge of the object. They said it weighed about five pounds and probably came from the landing gear of an airplane.

An official from the federal Aviation Administration called later, to make an appointment for an interview.

“We live right under the landing path to International Airport,” Mrs. Chetwynd said, “and I’ve been expecting something like this for years. And now it’s happened.”

“And now I can’t even remember what program I was watching,” her mother said. “It’s a real nuisance!”