Huge Chunk of Ice Crashes Through Gym

A 2-foot-long chunk of ice fell from the sky and tore through a college gymnasium roof, authorities said.

No one was in the Drayson Center at Loma Linda University when the slab of opaque ice hit on Thursday morning, although several people were outside.

"They said it sounded like an artillery shell going through the air," said Rolland Crawford, Loma Linda Fire Department division chief. "It was a whistling, whooshing sound."

Crawford said authorities aren't sure where the ice came from, but university spokeswoman Julie Smith said a building repairman saw an airplane flying overhead at the time. Maintenance workers bagged the ice, stuck it in a freezer and plan to hand it over to the Federal Aviation Administration.

FAA spokesman Mike Fergus said it will take at least a week for investigators to identify planes that were in the area 80 miles east of Los Angeles by reviewing radar records. But it may be impossible to determine where the ice came from, he said.

Ice that falls from an aircraft's galley or lavatory is blue, and ice that falls off fuselages tends to be only two or three inches thick, Fergus said.

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060414/ap_on_fe_st/falling_ice_1