Metal Clipboard With Aviation Documents Mysteriously Falls from Sky on Long Island
A Long Island, NY, man is still shaken after he says a
metal object plummeted from the sky and slammed into the pavement just feet
from where he was standing outside his home Thursday.
Gus Binos was washing a van outside his home at about
3:30 p.m. when he heard the startling noise -- a metal clipboard landing 20
feet from where he was standing in the driveway of his home on Oakwood Drive in
the Suffolk County hamlet of Shirley.
"I just jumped and turned," Binos said.
"Wow, what if I got hit with it?" Binos said.
"It is a very sharp piece of metal. I mean, with the velocity that it was
coming down, it would have stuck a hole in my head."
Jammed inside the clip was a thin stack of aviation
documents, including flight patterns and navigation guidelines for flying
through New York City's Hudson River corridor and around the Statue of Liberty.
The clipboard also held a runway map of nearby MacArthur Airport in Islip.
Adam Rosenberg, who is both a pilot and an FAA examiner,
uses a clipboard similar to the one that landed in Binos's driveway. The
clipboard has a strap that can secure to an aviator's leg, allowing for flight
papers to sit on the lap while both hands are at the controls.
It's possible, Rosenberg said, that a pilot accidentally
left the clipboard resting on the exterior of the aircraft before takeoff.
"Sometimes in the process of preparing to
'pre-flight' an airplane, or after you get out of an aircraft, you will put
something on the wing. However, the odds of it making it off the airport
property once the airplane begins taking off are very slim," Rosenberg
said.
Rosenberg said it is highly unusual -- but not unheard of
-- for a pilot to accidentally lose an item like a clipboard while in mid-air.
A cockpit door could accidentally come open and some planes have exposed
cockpits.
Jim Peters, a spokesperson for the FAA, said it is not
mandatory for a pilot to report when a personal item accidentally falls from an
aircraft. Official reports are required, however, if something falls to the
ground that might impact the air-worthiness of an aircraft.
"If a part of a plane becomes loose, they must
report it," Peters said.
Peters said FAA investigators want to speak with Binos
and examine the clipboard to find out where it came from.
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