By Tim Binnall
A California homeowner found herself with a chilly mystery on her hands after a sizeable chunk of ice plummeted from the sky and smashed through the roof of a guest house on her property. According to a local media report, the odd incident occurred last Friday morning in the city of Whittier, when Yuder Grau, who rents the dwelling, alerted his landlord, Thania Magana, to what he initially thought was an explosion. Rushing over to investigate the situation, the homeowner was stunned to discover a huge hole in the ceiling and several large pieces of ice on the couch and scattered throughout the living room of the apartment.
As if the situation were not worrisome enough, as Magana cleaned up the mess, she noticed that the ice had a particularly unpleasant smell, prompting her to save the mysterious material. "We just said let's stuff it in a bag, put it in the freezer, and see what it is," the homeowner recalled, noting that the frozen substance also appeared to be weirdly discolored. When Magana detailed the situation on social media, some amusingly suggested that the ice could have come from Artemis II as it returned from its mission. Alas, that fantastic scenario was quickly dismissed in favor of the more plausible possibility: a passenger plane passing overhead.
Based on flight activity at the time of the incident, Magana has identified a handful of planes that may have been the source of the mystery ice. However, the respective airlines have so far denied responsibility for the frozen debris that crashed through the roof of her guest house. To that end, she marveled that the incident could have been tragic, as Grau had only moments earlier gotten off the couch to take a nap. "I keep replaying it and just thinking of the what if," Magana mused, "the first thing that comes to mind is that he probably wouldn't be here with us" were it not for that rather fortuitous timing.