Mystery of giant chunk of ice from sky in Holmfirth - picture

Feb 3 2010 By Nick Lavigueur

Mrs Greaves said she had looked on the Internet and found several examples of ice having fallen from airplanes.

“The only baffling thing is that in those case, they talk of the ice having a blue tint to it. The ice I picked up, which I still have in my freezer, was clear.”

It has been speculated whether ice from the skies could be giant hailstones or maybe ice from aircraft, but a team of Spanish scientists has found that the answer actually lies within complex natural processes in the atmosphere.

The scientists looked at the formation of large ice conglomerations, known as mega-cryometeors, in our atmosphere. There have been more than 100 recorded events of ice chunks falling from the sky often weighing several kilograms.

Alternatively it could have come from an aircraft.

A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority said: “It is quite rare for ice to fall from planes. There were only 35 instances in the whole of last year where ice has fallen from planes, although for it to actually hit someone is extremely uncommon.

“There have only been five instances where an individual has been struck since we started recording incidents more than 20 years ago.”

He added: “It is possible there could be a leak in one of the seals on the plane, through which water has seeped and then frozen before falling.

“Ordinarily, the ice breaks up as it travels to earth and falls as harmless water”.