A man was left stunned after a large, heavy metal object fell from the wing of a passenger airplane in the sky and landed in front of him on the street, prompting him to text his wife ‘I almost died.’
Maine Capitol Police Screener Craig Donohue was only a few feet from disaster when the cylinder crashed in front of him as he walked outside the entrance of the state’s capitol building in Augusta, Maine.
Two witnesses watched on in horror as the metal sleeve shook the ground at around 12.30pm last Friday. The Federal Aviation Administration were notified along with the Augusta State Airport.
Stunned Donohue said he believes the object ‘would have left a pretty good mark’ had it hit him, as it was ‘seven or eight pounds falling from the sky unannounced.’
He also told Dailymail.com his fellow employees gifted him a hard hat as a joke to protect against future junk falling from the sky.
The FAA believes that the metal sleeve may have fallen from the wing flap of a large passenger jet, before plummeting to the ground at a high speed in front of Donohue.
Craig Donohue, who works as a screener with the Maine Capitol Police, was almost struck by a heavy object that fell from a plane on Friday
Donohue described the object as seven inches long and five inches wide and covered in grease, but added the metal object was heavy and ‘would have left a good mark’ if it hit him. The FAA are investigating but believe that it could have fallen from the wing of a jet
The incident occurred just outside the Maine Capitol Building as Donohue was returning from lunch
Donohue said the ‘wake up call’ occurred when he was returning from grabbing a couple of hot dogs and some french fries.
He said he heard a ‘loud thud’ and looked over to see the object bounce three or four feet in the air before it ‘rolled towards me and stopped right at my feet.’
He then picked up the object which he described as 7 inches long and 5 inches wide and covered in grease.
Two other people heard the object drop and walked over to Donohue, who asked ‘what the heck is that thing?’
They then realized it must have fell from the sky and all looked up, wondering if it was an object that may have even fallen from a space station.
He said he deduced quickly that it couldn’t have fallen from space, as an object that enters through Earth’s atmosphere would have been ‘hot and melted.’
Donohue said he didn’t think his colleagues would believe him when he went back to work, so he picked the object up and exclaimed ‘holy cow, this thing is heavy!’
He brought the object inside and handed it over to a police officer before calling the local airport and informing the FAA, who are investigating what the object is.
He said the local airport asked him to clean off the grease and look for a serial number on the object, but he couldn’t find one.
Donohue then quickly texted his wife a picture of the object and told her ‘just so you know, I almost died.’
While the incident was a shock, Donohue said ‘I’m just happy nothing happened and no one got hurt.’
He said he now has a fun story to tell, and shocked his wife’s parents over the weekend with the near-death experience.
The FAA have been to the site of the crash one or two times since it happened, Donohue said, and believes the part was likely from an international flight due to its size.
Donohue said everyone told him to buy a lottery ticket because of his luck, but he joked he may have ‘used my luck up.’
He said if he was walking back 10 or 15 seconds later, he may have been hit in the head by it.
“The 6-7 pound sleeve like object landed at a high velocity approximately 6-8 feet from Capitol Police Screener Craig Donahue who was walking outside the entrance,” the state’s public safety department said in a news release.
“The FAA has launched an investigation while attempting to locate the source of the part which is likely from a large airliner on an international route,” the news release said.
The FAA issued awareness notifications to flights that were over the area at the time of the incident, officials said in the news release.