SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Edgewood house is two-time victim of falling plane debris
Jun 16, 2012, 12:37 PM | Updated: 1:04 pm
Last week Sam Edgemon and his wife, Karen, were in bed when they heard a big explosion. They thought it might have been fireworks from the nearby casino, but in the morning Sam realized his house had been hit by a massive chunk of ice that fell from an airplane.
“It went through the comp roof, through the plywood and through the attic, and busted all the drywall up and landed on the floor,” Sam told The Dori Monson Show.
There was over a gallon of water sitting on the carpet in the closet, as well as large pieces of ice.
“I was talking to Les Martin with the FAA and he says that it fell off a plane in our area,” said Sam.
This is apparently fairly common, but ice usually doesn’t get big enough to hurt anyone.
Sam said he was told that it might have been caused by an airplane that had water leak out of their galley and freeze on a wing, then fall off as the plane started its descent.
Representatives from the Federal Airline Administration weren’t able to pinpoint what plane the ice had come from.
The couple’s home in the Edgewood neighborhood near Tacoma is in line with the SeaTac aiport flight pattern, so many planes fly over the house.
This isn’t the first time that the house has had airplane debris fall on the property. In 1984 the cover of an engine fell off a plane owned by Continental.
Apparently, the airlines are not liable for the damage. When the engine fell, it sprayed debris all over Sam’s roof and shattered the windows in a neighboring house. Sam said that, although Continental paid for his neighbor’s windows, the company didn’t do anything for him.
“They just said, ‘Thank you, we’re out of here,'” said Sam.