Meteor Shower Prompts Calls to Officials Across the East Coast

A meteor showered skies over the East with glowing streaks of light Friday night, sprinkling debris near planes and prompting a deluge of telephone calls to authorities, officials said.

“It was just a big green ball of fire with a tail behind it,” said John Law of Camden, W.Va.

Radio stations, newspapers and meteorologists received hundreds of calls from people who saw the fireball at about 8 p.m.

“We have had numerous sightings over the Eastern United States from people on the ground and pilots in the air,” said Ken Batty, a weather service meteorologist in Charleston, W.Va. “Some pilots are reporting falling debris from up around 35,000 to 39,000 feet.”

Sightings were reported in western Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, D.C., and North Carolina.

Peter Wolf, a weather service meteorologist at Richmond International Airport in Virginia, said, “The tower here reported it looking like an aircraft burning up.” Some residents thought they had seen a plane crash, he added.

“Because it was so bright and large it appeared to have hit the ground, but there are not confirmations of that,” Batty said.

In Richmond, Va., police said they were flooded with calls reporting a plane crash. Firefighters and police were sent to investigate near downtown but found nothing.

The meteor probably burned out before it hit the ground, Batty said.

There are about a dozen meteor showers each year, he said. A meteor is a piece of space rock that begins to burn because of intense heat caused by friction with the Earth’s atmosphere.

No air traffic problems or injuries were reported.