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The Annex - Death From Above? (Ice falls from airplanes)

Lock

Lock

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Here is a Flickr set of images taken in the Annex (St.Geo and Bloor):
www.flickr.com/photos/lockhughes/sets/72157613697826036/

These images were taken in November 2007 and this morning,

What they show are chunks of ice that fall from airplanes circling to land at the City Center Airport.

What happens is, when conditions aloft are just right, frozen rain and hail ice up in the wheel wells of the aircraft, and as they lower their wheels for landing the ice is broken off and drops.

This was explained to me by a Transport Canada Civil Aviation Safety Inspector when this happened first in 2007.

At that time I saved the largest chunk of ice (which barely fit in the fridge freezer compartment) but TC never came by to pick the ice up.

The Island Airport is one of the very few airports in Canada that actually does shut down in the middle of the night. All flights in/out end about 11:00pm and start up in the mornings about 7:00am.

On the two occasions when the ice has hit MY roof it has been early mornings...

Now I hear from a neighbour (house about a block away) that about one week ago she and husband also heard a loud BANG from their roof and were unable to find the cause. This again early in the morning sometime a little after 07:00hrs...

While Transport Canada seemed not to care in 2007, this time I have forwarded the pictures to the Toronto Star, CITY-TV, etc.

I am curious to know whether other Annex residents also have reports of mysterious LOUD BANGS that shake their homes?

If the ice that slammed into my home (roof deck) had fallen another 60 feet to the east it would have hit a very busy sidewalk. These are large chunks of ice travelling at over 100 miles per hour when they impact.

Thank you
Lock Hughes
 
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how do you know if it came from the planes? is it the profile on the ice?

that's nuts!
 
Hello Prometheus

You know how warm and wet the weather has been these last 24hrs! There is NO snow or ice on the roof anywhere!

The neighbour a block away has zero tall buildings anywhere within hundreds of feet? I have the emails from Transport Canada from 2007. At that time the investigator narrowed the planes down to just 3-4 flights all of which were headed to the Island. Not taking off. Not heading to Pearson...

And the shape molded into the blocks (last time it was easier to see the pieces filled together to form a sheet about 3ft long and 4 inches thick) appear identical from 2007 and 2009.

In 2007 I was told by one other person in the area (Prince Arthur street) that they too had one of these... events. Loud bang that shakes the house, but no sign outside of what happened.
tks
Lock
 
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In 2007 the investigator confirmed there were no flights over the area at the time EXCEPT heading to land on the Island (it took a few minutes then to discover the ice, the pictures were time stamped, so I had a pretty accurate estimate of the exact time of impact.)
I just ran outside and hopefully am making a plaster cast of the distinctive lines that are molded into the ice. The cast might fit somewhere in the wheel well of one of the Porter Dash planes...
tks
Lock
 
i wonder if they can add something to the plane to prevent this from happening?
 
HA! ...hehe thanks khristopher... But I am reminded of Henry Bliss who in 1899 in NYC suffered North Americas first death by auto...
Pretty sure Henry didn't care that he was crushed by an "environmentally-sensitive" vehicle (battery-electric taxi)
tks
Lock
 
2007 emails with the Transport Canada fellow that never bothered to show up ("FOD" btw is Transport Canada term for "Foreign Object Damage"):

RE: Suspect FOD
Monday, December 10, 2007 7:29 AM
From: "Ragnauth, Steve" <RAGNAUS@tc.gc.ca>To: "Lock Hughes" <lockhughes@yahoo.com>
After lunch (1300) is good for me.

What is your phone # incase I need to reschedule.

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: Lock Hughes [mailto:lockhughes@yahoo.com]
Sent: December 10, 2007 7:18 AM
To: Ragnauth, Steve
Subject: RE: Suspect FOD


Wednesday's good for me Steve. I still have the sample, though the
automatic defrost feature of the freezer appears to be morphing the
piece into solid ice from it's original pellet composition... You'll
have to see...

It'd be good if you could ballpark your arrival time on Wednesday?

tks
Lock


--- "Ragnauth, Steve" <RAGNAUS@tc.gc.ca> wrote:
> Hi Mr Hughes;
> I need to meet with you to look at the area and retrieve the sample.
> Are you available this Wednesday or Friday.
> Regards
> Steve
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lock Hughes [mailto:lockhughes@yahoo.com]
> Sent: December 10, 2007 7:01 AM
> To: Ragnauth, Steve
> Subject: Re: Suspect FOD
>
>
> Hello Steve.
>
> Please find attached five pictures:
>
> 347 shows the pieces of ice remaining the next morning - just gives
> an
> overall picture of the deck and the "puddle" of broken ice...
>
> 344 was taken right after the ice was discovered...
>
> 345 shows one of the larger pieces, with the flat side that seemed
> common to most of the larger pieces remaining. The "flat" sides
> actually showed straight lines molded into the surface which (it
> appears) the ice was formed on.
>
> 346 shows the same piece of ice with my foot on top to give an idea
> of
> scale. There were several pieces that were this size approx., and
> many
> more smaller pieces.
>
> 348 is a fuzzy closeup trying to show how the "ice" was actually
> composed of pellets frozen hard together... The ice/water itself
> appeared completely clean - no blue or brown or any other colour,
> just
> white/clear.
>
> Other than these pics, not much more to tell! No sign/sound of
> aircraft, but I didn't discover the ice (step outside onto the deck)
> until several minutes after the ice hit (thump that shook the house
> like a nearby peal of thunder!)
>
> Tks
>
> Laughlin Hughes
>
>
> --- "Ragnauth, Steve" <RAGNAUS@tc.gc.ca> wrote:
> > Hi Mr Hughes;
> > Thank you for getting back to me.
> > Below are my email and other contact information. Please send me as
> > much detail as you can - time of day, colour of ice, noticeable
> > aircraft in area, pictures, etc.
> >
> > Best regards
> > Steve Ragnauth
> > Civil Aviation Safety Inspector / Inspecteur de la sécurité de
> > l'aviation civile
> > Aircraft Maintenance / Maintenance des aéronefs (PAH-PIA)
> > Transport Canada Centre / Centre Transports Canada
> > Mississauga, Ontario L5P 1A1 / Mississauga (Ontario) L5P 1A1
> > ragnaus@tc.gc.ca
> > phone / téléphone: (905) 676-4658
> > facsimile / télécopieur: (905) 612-5484
> > Mobile: (416) 919-4845
> > Aircraft Maintenance & Manufacturing / Maintenance et construction
> > des aéronefs
> > Civil Aviation / Aviation civile
> > Ontario Region / Région de l'Ontario
> > Transport Canada / Transports Canada
> > Government of Canada / Gouvernment du Canada
 
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I guess it's kinda possible that it could have come from a Porter plane that departed Pearson for the City Centre airport. When Porter planes are estimated to arrive after 23:00 they are diverted to Pearson. Obviously these same planes are needed the next morning for operations as there are scheduled departures every 5 minutes from 6:45 to 7:00. Since aircraft cannot land at the Island until 6:45, they tend to leave Pearson at roughly that time (depending if they need to be de-iced, in which case they depart closer to 7:15) to make the 8 minute trek over to the island.

I'm not entirely familiar with the routing they use, but I'm fairly certain they head south from Pearson and travel towards the airport out over the lake. This routing makes me skeptical that it's ice from a Porter plane. I could be wrong though.

However, what's your point? Is this another supposed piece of ammo against Porter? If so, it's pretty poor.
 
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