A woman has a £12k hole in her roof caused by a block of ice - which may have fallen from a landing plane.
Dr Carla George, 45, was on a work call when she heard a massive bang last week (12/9).
She thought some boxes must have fallen in the attic at her home in Banbury, Oxon.
But when she went to investigate she realised she could see blue sky - and found a large block of ice on the floor.
Dr Carla, a field researcher in criminology who recently completed a PhD, called the fire brigade.
She claims a firefighter told her it was likely caused by ice falling from a plane on its way into Heathrow.
She has been quoted £12k to fix the roof, which will be covered by her home insurance.
Dr Carla, who lives alone, 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."
Despite being told that the most probable cause of the damage was falling debris from a plane, Dr Carla says she didn't hear anything that 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.
"My neighbour said that he used to work on planes and a suitcase once fell out."
Although temporarily covered over with a tarpaulin sheet, Dr Carla's roof will need a full repair.
She said: "The blocks of ice took a whole day to melt and then we had the insurers come round.
"The roofers put in a temporary fix the next day and we are waiting for surveyors to asses the damage and see what can be done for the restoration work.
"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!"
Oxfordshire firefighters confirmed they were called to Dr Carla's home last week.
They said the hole is believed to have been caused by large lump of ice which fell from the sky.
The Civil Aviation Authority said 25 'ice fall' incidents are reported every year from 2.5million flights.
Captain John Hutchinson, 86, is a retired Concorde pilot and aviation expert.
He said of the possibility the damage was caused by an ice fall: "It's not the first time it's happened, that's for sure.
"As to why the ice falls - well you don't flush toilets overboard so to speak, so it won't be from a loo.
"To me the most likely scenario is water in the undercarriage bay when the aircraft took off which formed into ice and would stay as a block of ice whilst cruising at 35,000ft.
"And as the airplane came into land at 3,000 or 4,000ft, the undercarriage would be selected down and it would fall out - that would be one solution.
"It's certainly possible that it would have been caused by a block of ice that fell off an airplane."
John flew planes from 1955 to 1992.
Dr Carla George, 45, was on a work call when she heard a massive bang last week (12/9).
She thought some boxes must have fallen in the attic at her home in Banbury, Oxon.
But when she went to investigate she realised she could see blue sky - and found a large block of ice on the floor.
Dr Carla, a field researcher in criminology who recently completed a PhD, called the fire brigade.
She claims a firefighter told her it was likely caused by ice falling from a plane on its way into Heathrow.
She has been quoted £12k to fix the roof, which will be covered by her home insurance.
Dr Carla, who lives alone, 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."
Despite being told that the most probable cause of the damage was falling debris from a plane, Dr Carla says she didn't hear anything that 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.
"My neighbour said that he used to work on planes and a suitcase once fell out."
Although temporarily covered over with a tarpaulin sheet, Dr Carla's roof will need a full repair.
She said: "The blocks of ice took a whole day to melt and then we had the insurers come round.
"The roofers put in a temporary fix the next day and we are waiting for surveyors to asses the damage and see what can be done for the restoration work.
"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!"
Oxfordshire firefighters confirmed they were called to Dr Carla's home last week.
They said the hole is believed to have been caused by large lump of ice which fell from the sky.
The Civil Aviation Authority said 25 'ice fall' incidents are reported every year from 2.5million flights.
Captain John Hutchinson, 86, is a retired Concorde pilot and aviation expert.
He said of the possibility the damage was caused by an ice fall: "It's not the first time it's happened, that's for sure.
"As to why the ice falls - well you don't flush toilets overboard so to speak, so it won't be from a loo.
"To me the most likely scenario is water in the undercarriage bay when the aircraft took off which formed into ice and would stay as a block of ice whilst cruising at 35,000ft.
"And as the airplane came into land at 3,000 or 4,000ft, the undercarriage would be selected down and it would fall out - that would be one solution.
"It's certainly possible that it would have been caused by a block of ice that fell off an airplane."
John flew planes from 1955 to 1992.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00 So I'm a resident of Banbury and I've got a massive hole in my ceiling which is unusual,
00:07 it's an unusual hole. So one day I was working just right in my office room and I just heard a
00:12 loud bang and I was just like oh my gosh you know I said just very loud and it just vibrated the
00:20 house so I thought perhaps it was a couple of boxes but when I looked I was like wow I just
00:25 saw like the ceiling just came apart just unusually and I looked underneath and I saw
00:31 a massive hole in the roof so I didn't know what to think and what to do so I was advised to call
00:39 the brigade so I called the brigade and before you know it they were right there within 10-15 minutes
00:46 it's something that they've never been called to before but they did say it was actually common
00:52 where black ice can literally come from an aeroplane and literally can hit a house at such
00:59 a high impact it's just like one in a million but I just learned something new today that these
01:05 things can happen and you kind of don't feel very safe in your home you know because that night I
01:11 was kind of like sceptical thinking okay what's going to happen if I'm going to sleep in my main
01:17 room or sleep downstairs it was like that but it was just debris ice everywhere and when I literally
01:26 picked up that ice and it was literally I just had to put it back down again it was just very
01:31 cold and it just melted by seven o'clock the same evening when we had the reefers come out to fit
01:36 the tarpaul you know I'm just in complete utter shock but you know I kind of learned something
01:43 on that very day so I kind of learned how to deal with an insurance because I've never dealt with a
01:48 house insurance in my life it was something like this so I kind of you know advise people to check
01:54 their insurance just to make sure that you've got a great deal of coverage especially with a
02:00 circumstance such as this I do get a bit paranoid when I see a plane somehow I don't know why but I
02:06 just kind of like okay there's a plane in the sky what's going to happen I get paranoid if I see
02:11 rain now coming through the roof so I'm thinking what's going to happen you know so it's that sort
02:18 of effect you know I kind of thinking okay is something going to drop you know something's
02:24 going to drop whatever but that's that's how it is.