User talk:BKSRIVASTAVA

SOME CASES OF FALL OF BLUE ICE FROM SKY IN INDIA

In India some cases of fall of heavy lumps of ice were reported in media which could be categorized as the typical cases of fall of frozen liquid leaking out of defective pipe lines from the lavatory of an aircraft. They are mentioned as below; 1.	Incident of fall of Blue Ice from Aircraft Near Hajibas (Haryana, India) on 18th May 2008,(Approximate Geographical Coordinates Latitude 27°53’37”N, Longitude 77°07’30”E). On 18th May 2008 morning at around 10:30 Hrs Indian Standard Time (0500 UTC), a big blowing sound was heard as if some bomb has fallen outside by the residents of Village Hajibas about two Kms from Pinangwan Town (Distt. Gurgaon, Haryana, India) What people saw was a huge block of blue coloured ice weighing at least 10-Kg that had fallen there, sinking the ground and creating a hole about half a feet in depth. Fortunately there was no injury to any person or damage to any property. The ice block melted after about two to two and a half hours. Many people collected water sample from the melted ice. The month of May in Haryana is normally dry and with no signs of Monsoon, and on the day of the incident, the sky was clear and bright. Thus any weather related phenomenon was ruled out. Further analysis revealed that the place of incident is located at a distance of about 75 Kms (Aerial distance) of Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, Delhi exactly towards south (On a bearing of 180°). This place lies below the Air Traffic Services (ATS) route known as W-20N (Bhopal-Delhi Sector) and when over this place, the aircraft are approximately 15 to 20 minutes to land at IGI airport. This route is normally used by aircraft arriving from South side (i.e. from Bhopal, Nagpur, Hyderabad, or Chennai side) and the distance matches with the area where commercial airliners are descending from their cruising level of about 30,000 feet down to 15,000 feet, where temperatures are comparatively higher than the cruising level. By combining all the facts and figures, about the same, the incident definitely deserved the credit to get categorized as one of the rarest phenomenon of blue aircraft ice falling on ground in our country. The matter was also reported to the Director General of Civil Aviation, New Delhi on 21st May 2008. It is understood from DGCA that though there had been many incidents of leakage of toilet drains, however it was the first report of fall of blue ice in India. 2.	Incident of Blue Ice from Aircraft Near Mt. Abu (Distt Sirohi, Rajashthan) on 06th Oct 2009.Italic text Another incident of fall of Blue Ice in India was reported near Mount Abu in Rajasthan on 06th Oct 2009. A large lump of blue Ice weighing about 25 Kgs fell from the sky in a farmhouse in Tokra village near Mount Abu (Geographical Coordinates 24°40’25” N, 72°42’40” E) in early morning at around 0515 Hrs Indian Standard Time (2345 Hrs UTC on 05th Oct 2009),damaging some of the branches of the trees. The pieces of ice scattered all over the place. It was again taken as a mysterious case, since there were no rains and sky was clear with Temperature touching around 38°C in that area. The incident was witnessed by a 40-years old Guard who had come out to feed the cattle. As the news spread, a big crowd had gathered at the site. The ice had melted down to about 4-Kgs when the photographs were taken. The case was examined by Dr. (Prof) K. K. Sharma, Head of the Deptt of Geology at the Government College, Sirohi, who also consulted Jesus Martinez-Frias, a planetary geologist at the Center for Astrobiology in Madrid, and a pioneer researcher of large sized Ice lumps regarding the case. And then, he, in consultations with Professors Dr. Ritesh Purohit (Lecturer, Geology) and Dr. Sanjay Purohit (Lecturer, Bio Technology) of the same college, very rightly declared the ice as the one from the lavatories of an aircraft. It may be mentioned that Air Route “A-791W (Westbound)” from Kolkata to Karachi (Which is an International air-route) passes through that area. Aircraft normally cruise at an altitude of 10 Kms or above over such air routes and atmospheric temperatures at that altitude are quite low [in the range of (-) 30°C to (-)150°C]. Thus the ice from aircraft at such high altitudes would normally remain frozen unless and until it becomes abnormally heavy and may drop because of its own weight. It is therefore possible that an airliner cruising at an high altitude over the route might have dropped the ice lump due to heavy weight of the same. 3.	Incident of fall of Green Ice from Aircraft in Greater Noida Near Delhi on 19th Feb 2011.Italic text A piece of about 6-Kgs of Green colored Ice fell in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Camp at Suthyana, Greater Noida near Delhi on 19th Feb. 2011 at around 0930 Hrs IST (UTC 0400Hrs) in the morning, which was collected and kept for further examination. The area on ground where the ice fell also became green in color. The matter was reported by CRPF Officials to Police and the specimen kept in the fridge. This case was also reported to Director General of Civil Aviation, New Delhi. The place of incident (28°31'2.21"N, 77°27'10.91"E) lies at a distance of about 40 Kms to the east of IGI Airport, New Delhi and falls in the approach path, where the aircraft align itself for landing. The ice sample was later sent for examination to Central Soil & Research Station, New Delhi and it was confirmed to be from an aircraft lavatory. 4.	Few other unconfirmed reports in India. •	It was reported by the local journalist (Who had earlier reported the incident of blue ice) of Pinganwan (Haryana) that after about 6 months after the above incident, another incident of Blue ice occurred at a closeby location in Haryana at a distance of 20 Kms west of Pingawan (Where the first incident had occurred) near Barkali, Nagina (Haryana), Geographical Coordinates Latitude 27°55’01”N, Longitude 76°58’33”E.). •	On 27 January 2006, fall of block of ice of around 2 kg in a village of West Bengal (India) was reported, that had been referred as “Megacryometeors”. The jagged and melting piece was lying in a crater about a foot deep. Further details of the incident are however not available. [Reference can be made to the Website on “Megacryometeors” http://tierra.rediris.es/bloquesdehielo/]. However, the possibility of the above incident also being the ice from aircraft cannot be totally ruled out.

Bimal K. Srivastava,

Address Bimal K. Srivastava, (Ex General Manager, Airports Authority of India) G-11, Second Floor, Green Park Ext. New Delhi-110016.

Email: bksrivastava2000@yahoo.co.uk or, bksrivastava2000@gmail.com, Website: http://aerosurvey.in