Federal officials showed up at an Auburn house Sunday to investigate an object that came crashing through an elderly couple's roof.
'A Big Boom And The House Shook'
AUBURN - Mary Hornbrook says it's a good thing she forgot one of her tools when she was tending to the plants on her porch Sunday afternoon.
The 82-year-old woman stepped back inside to get the tool when... "Just a big boom and the house shook," Mary said. "I wondered what it was and so I went out to look, and here was this thing sticking in the porch."
The "thing" remains a mystery. The three-foot steel rod crashed through Mary's roof and stuck in the floor just a few feet from her plants.
"It had to come from up above," said neighbor Loni Yates as she stared at the hole in the Hornbrook's roof. The orange rod was still sticking up from the floor nearby.
The house is near the Sea-Tac flight path, and investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration showed up Sunday evening to to take a look.
The two FAA officials would not comment on where the rod may have come from, but they took the object with them when they left.
But residents at the River's Retirement Center hope to get more answers. "It would be nice to know where it came from," said Yates.
The Hornbrooks are still stunned. "I've never seen something so crazy in all my life like this," said Bill Hornbrook. "And I've seen crazy things."
Mary is still thankful she had to go back inside for a gardening tool at just the right time.
"I just thought I was lucky not to be doing what I was intending to do," she said.
Would it be connected with the blown tyre debris that closed Rwy 16L at KSEA yesterday at about 14.30 LT. I think it was an American Airlines A/C that the tower suspected to have lost the rubber, maybe other things were affected as well!
Nice bright orange.... Isn't that "flight test" colour?
Maybe I should have added: Yes it is.... (just look at flight test wiring), but it's also the preferred colour for anything that needs "to catch the eye", be it a flight data recorder.... or a tow bar that should NOT have been taken along on a flight ....
It was a helicopter ground handling pole off a Schweizer 269C (clue: "ground" handling pole) Assuming the ground handler was not attached.
Quote:
AUBURN, WASH. - A metal bar that crashed through the roof of an Auburn couple's home was a piece of equipment from a helicopter, officials with the Federal Aviation Administration said on Monday.
Mary Hornbrook says it's a good thing she forgot one of her tools when she was tending to the plants on her porch Sunday afternoon.
The 82-year-old woman stepped back inside to get the tool when... "Just a big boom and the house shook," Mary said. "I wondered what it was and so I went out to look, and here was this thing sticking in the porch."
The "thing" was a three-foot steel rod that crashed through Mary's roof and stuck in the floor just a few feet from her plants.
FAA spokesman Mike Fergus said the orange rod was a ground handling wheel bar that fell off of a helicopter that had taken off from the Renton Airport.
The bar is used to help move the helicopter on the ground and should not have been attached to the aircraft when it took off.
The Schweizer 269C helicopter was up for a training flight and had an instructor and student on board, he said. He would not comment on how investigators determined which aircraft was responsible.
It was not known whether the pilot would be cited for the incident, Fergus said, adding that the investigation was ongoing.
The Hornbrooks, though, were stunned by the incident. "I've never seen something so crazy in all my life like this," said Bill Hornbrook. "And I've seen crazy things."
Mary is still thankful she had to go back inside for a gardening tool at just the right time.
"I just thought I was lucky not to be doing what I was intending to do," she said.
