In 2012, raw chicken fell from the sky of a small Virginia town. The incident was blamed on regurgitating seagulls. In 2001, a soccer class in England was interrupted by a hailstorm of earthworms. In 2007, a couple driving through Washington State was suddenly struck by a 600-pound cow which fell onto the hood of their car. A small Colombian town even claimed blood rained on their community in 2008.
For the town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, its residents found their neighborhood covered in equally mysterious – though less Biblically terrifying – scraps of toilet paper and plastic bags.
Fans of the Office – the American version, at least – might recognize the name Scranton, where the show is set, and the incident sounds like a prank Steve Carell’s happy-go-lucky-yet-obnoxiously-waggish character might play.
But residents don’t seem to think the incident was a gag, and instead of calling police, they called the next logical alternative: the Federal Aviation Administration.
"It’s nuts," an area man told CBS Philly. "I mean, a plane drops stuff out of the sky onto someone’s yard? I mean, that’s just crazy, I’ve never seen something like that before."
Paula Viccica, whose lawn suffered the most damage, said she saw four airplanes fly over her property around the same time she saw noticed the debris.
"Over the weekend we had laid black mulch," Viccica told the Times Leader. "Well, it’s not black anymore."
Viccica also expressed her concern that her lawn could become some kind of permanent dumping ground for airplane waste, something airline pilots snicker about in the airport bar, and she wants some type of assurance that it won’t happen again.
According to the FAA, it never happened in the first place. A statement on the agency’s website claims it’s physically impossible for a pilot to dump lavatory tanks midflight, since they’re opened from the aircraft’s exterior.
The FAA is, however, taking the complaints seriously. It has launched a full investigation, taking samples from the scene for lab testing. It’s also trying to pinpoint which of the four planes spotted overhead by Mrs. Viccica could have done the deed.
Things could have been worse, however. In 2008, a Canadian grandmother, Marian Liknes, went to answer the phone in her bedroom when frozen waste from a passing plane crashed through her roof. Liknes picked up her phone – presumably told whoever had called "I’ll call you back" – and immediately dialed the number for the Transportation Safety Board.
Maybe we should all just add our local aviation agency to our speed dials.
