This looks like an incident which was bound to happen. The result could also have been disastrous. Pilots of a Chilean commercial aircraft approaching the Auckland airport in New Zealand said they spotted flaming space debris falling past their jetliner.
The airline reported that the pilot made visual contact with incandescent fragments several kilometers away.
Later the Sydney Morning Herald reported that pieces of a Russian Satellite had narrowly missed the jet. It also stated that New Zealand authorities had been warned by Russians that orbiting debris will be entering Earth’s atmosphere, but the entry time was miscalculated by the Russians.
This reference to the Russians may have been linked to the scheduled re-entry of Progress Cargo ship which was cast off from ISS on Tuesday. Russians however believe that the Progress was on schedule after the reported fireball and the coordinates for the re-entry did not match up with reports from the LAN Chile crew.
Some analysts have also stated that the space fireball might be a different piece of space junk or a natural meteor fireball that lazed through the sky before the Progress was de-orbited.
Via: MSNBC
