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Reports of Meteor Shower Abound Along U.S. East Coast
By Reuters
posted: 10:45 pm ET
23 July 2001
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Reports of a possible meteor shower flooded police and government telephone lines along the U PHILADELPHIA, July 23 (Reuters) - Reports of a possible meteor shower flooded police and government telephone lines along the U.S. East Coast on Monday, authorities said. The sightings of what some described as a meteor prompted evening rush-hour motorists to pull off suburban highways west of Philadelphia. Pilots in flight issued reports of sightings to federal aviation officials in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. Authorities said some eyewitness accounts came from as far south as Virginia. ``People say they saw what was perhaps a meteor shower, but there's nothing we can confirm,'' said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Salac. A Reuters reporter saw a tapered object shaped like a trumpet bell falling diagonally through the western sky near West Chester, Pennsylvania, 20 miles (32 km) from Philadelphia, at about 6:20 p.m. (2220 GMT). The object emitted a lustrous rainbow of colors, ranging from bright yellow on its downward-pointing flared end to light green and finally rust-colored red at the tapered end-point. Others reported seeing a triangular object shooting through the sky. The National Weather Service reported no natural phenomena that could account for such a sight. Police in Pennsylvania were investigating the possibility of a part falling from a plane from Philadelphia International Airport, which sometimes guides flights across the city's western suburbs. But sightings were later reported southward through Delaware, Maryland, Washington and into Virginia. There were no reports of aviation emergencies, apart from the nonfatal crash of a single-engine plane in Calvert, Maryland, near the state's border with Pennsylvania and Delaware. ``We have no idea what it was, whether it was a meteor or what,'' said National Weather Service spokesman Curtis Carey.
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