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(meteorobs) Details of "Hays, Kansas Fireball" Observation

On July 17th at app. 9AM Kansas time a Southwest
Airlines pilot travelling westbound on flight SW1009
reported to the air-traffic controller seeing a
rapidly moving and extremely bright (and "large")
meteor travel from his upper-left downward to some
point (that was out of his line of sight) beneath the
fuselage of his aircraft. 

What I found very interesting about the above
observation is that the meteor was still luminescent
when it went out of his sight BENEATH him. 
NOTE - the pilot (let's call him "Capt. Bruce S.", for
now) explained to me that he never saw the object hit
the ground!

What I found to be a very promising factor was that
pilots from two other airliners contacted the control
tower and CONFIRMED this sighting!

What needs to be done, first, is that the exact time
the fireball was witnessed needs to be determined. 
This is necessary in order to review sensor recordings
as archived at Sandia Labs.

Dr. Colm Kelleher of NIDS, the National Institute of
Discovering Sciences, which is where the FAA forwards
sightings such as these, is attempting to contact the
air-traffic controller and the two other pilots to
obtain more detailed information in an attempt to
triangulate these sightings.  If he is successful in
narrowing down a likely fall area, there is a Bolide
Chaser volunteer already prepared to canvass that area
and to interview any eye-witnesses.  Additional
volunteers may be necessary.  It is hoped that all of
this effort will result in a successful meteorite
recovery.  If we come up short of that, at least we
will have gathered important fireball observing data.

Some additional information:

Since the flight controller was utilizing the VOR
tower that is located near Hays, Kansas, this fireball
has been given the name "Hays, Kansas" Fireball.

Bolide_Chaser, Steve Witt, has tracked down a police
report from the Great Bend, Kansas police department
of an eyewitness who saw "a green light coming down
out of the sky, with a fiery tail behind it" a little
west of Hoisington (about 35 miles S.W. of Hays). 
"> Report was on the 17th around 9:00 A.M.!! 
 > That's the only thing I could find. 
 > Maybe further west, maybe it didn't make it to the
 > ground?????"  -- Steve W."

If anyone else has anything that they would like to
report, or opinion that they would like to share,
please feel free to "REPLY ALL" to this message.

Thanks for your interest,
Bob V.  
Bolide_Chasers@yahoogroups.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Bolide_Chasers/







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