Frozen sewage from passing plane suspected cause of hole in Nepean home

An Ottawa woman believes a chunk of frozen sewage plummeted from a passing aircraft and punched a hole through the roof of her mother's Nepean home early Sunday morning, just metres from where she lay sleeping.

Stephanie Moore had justreturned from a trip to Cuba when shesays she was awakened at 2 a.m. on Sunday by a "giant crashing noise."

The 36-year-old teacher with the Ottawa Catholic School Board jumped out of bed,turned on a light and soon discovereda gaping hole in the ceiling of the hallway outside the bedroom where she had been sleeping.

My head was only about 12 or 15 feet away.- Stephanie Moore

"My head was only about 12 or 15 feet away," said Moore.

Shequickly discovered pink insulation, drywall ceiling material and shattered bits ofwoodon the hallwayfloor, along with a puddle of water. Moore immediately called the insurance company.

'Went right through roof'

The light of day revealed a hole about one metre in diameter in the hall ceiling,with insulation, drywall and wood hanging precariouslyfrom the large gash.

Photographs taken in the attic also show damage to theroof planking and the shingles, and daylightcan be seenshining through the hole.

"At first I thought it was just damage to the ceiling. I couldn't tell it went right through the roofwhen I first saw it,"Moore said.

Moore said both her insurance adjuster and the roof repair expertwho came to her mother's home Sunday called it "the strangest thing they have ever seen."

There's no evidence to suggest that atree or branch caused the damage and there was no ice or snow on the roof when it happened.

Theroofing specialist who inspected the damage said there was norotting wood in the roof, and that before the incident, at least, the exterior shell of Moore's mother's house was solid.

'Blue ice' suspected

It's the roofer who suggested "blue ice" as the likeliestsource of the damage, since ameteorite strikethough it might cause similardamagewould leave behind a rock or mineral element in the debris.

Blue ice, named for the colour of the disinfectant used in the sewage systems of commercial aircraft, is the term forfrozen waste that can leak and break away from planes while they're aloft.

Though pilots don't have the ability to intentionallyrelease the holding tanks of onboard lavatories, leaksare possible and themixture ofhuman waste and liquiddisinfectant that freezes in the cold air of highaltitude can plummet earthward like a frozen bomb.

The roofer who inspected Moore's mother's home saidblue ice has been knownto strike homes and then melt on impact, leaving little evidence as to thecause of the damage.

In 2008, theTransportation Safety Board concluded that ice that crashed through roof of a Calgary woman's home had come from anairplane flying overhead.

Moore said she plans to call the Transportation Safety Boardabout the damage. Thehome is in the Merivale Road and ViewmountDrive area of Nepean, about threekilometres northwest of the Ottawa MacdonaldCartier International Airport.

That proximity, along with the absence of any other obvious explanation for the damageand the fact that her childhood home is under several flight paths has Moore convinced that blue iceis indeed the cause.

Transport Canada 'looking into' incident

Transport Canada said in a statement Tuesday the ministry was aware of the incident and islooking into it.

"The department takes all reports of possible debris coming from aircraft very seriously. Every reported incident is investigated by Transport Canada officials," said spokespersonNatasha Gauthier.

CanadianAviation Regulations prohibitcreating a hazard by dropping an object from an aircraft in flight, according to Transport Canada.

Moore checked the flight tracking softwareplanefinder.net where she determined thatthe only plane flying above herNepeanhome at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning was a courier aircraftregistered to the the logistics and shipping company DHL, which is adivision ofDeutsche Post DHL Group. She hasn't reached out to DHL.

Moore haspreserved some of the wood fragments from the roof so that they might be analyzed, and she has also saved some of the water that leaked through the holefor about five minutes following the initial impact in the hopes that it will helpdetermine if the strike was from frozenlavatory water.

Workers added a temporary repair patch to Moore's house on Sunday and therepair company was set toprovide an estimate on Tuesday for the cost of repairing a substantial section of the roof.

Moore has been toldto expect a bill "in the thousands,"since planking, shingles, insulation and drywall all need to be replaced, though she said she'sconfident her mother's insurance company will cover the cost of repairs.

Moore said though the incident hasleft her shaken, it could have been worse.For now, the teacher says she's trying to make the most of the unusual event.

"I teach kids Grades 2 and 3 and I told them the story today and they were completely enthralled by it. They said, 'It's aliens!'"