A motorist had a miracle escape after a lump of ice from an aeroplane smashed through his windscreen – and landed in the driver’s SEAT.
Lucky Kenneth Hendy, 71, had just stepped out of his Volvo when the frozen lump – the size of a RUGBY ball – plummeted from the sky.
It smashed through the glass and landed on the driver’s seat with shards of ice left scattered across the inside of the car.
Kenneth had just pulled up outside his home and would have been killed if the ice had landed seconds earlier.
The block is thought to have fallen from a passing aircraft before landing on the car in Plymouth, Devon.
Kenneth, a retired mechanic, said: ”If I’d have been there a couple of seconds later it would have killed me. It’s a miracle that I had stepped out of the car in time.
”I recently had a quadruple heart bypass operation and it would have hit me right in the chest. I would have been a goner.
”I had literally just stepped inside the house when it came down. A neighbour said it sounded like a clap of thunder.”
Kenneth, a father-of-seven, had just returned from picking up his daughter Lisa, 37, when the block of ice struck.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said ice can gather on aircraft flying at altitude then drop off as the plane descends.
A spokesman said although it was not a particularly common occurrence, it can happen if there has been a leak from a faulty seal or hose.
The leaking fluid can then freeze at altitude, thaw and fall from the fuselage as the plane descends into warmer air.
But grandfather-of-ten Kenneth, believes the ice is actually human WASTE which has been frozen and dropped from a plane.
He added: ”The ice was all browny yellow and it smells like muck. I think it’s come from the toilet of a plane to be honest.
”I’m angry about it and would consider legal action. They shouldn’t be dumping waste like that, it could have killed me.”
Most reports of ice fall come from people who live under the approach paths to major airports.
All ice falls should be reported to the CAA, but a spokesman said it was rare for the authority to be able to link it back to a specific aircraft.
He said the advice is not to handle the ice as it could contain hydraulic fluid. The incident has been reported to police.
Last July a man from Bristol was sitting in his garden when a lump of ice the size of a grapefruit fell from the sky and struck him on the leg.
