Slow-moving bright fireball over the English Channel
A bright, slow-moving fireball was recorded over the English Channel at 04:51 UTC on September 8, 2019. The event lasted for more than 7 seconds.
The American Meteor Society (AMS) received 91 reports over the next couple of hours, from people living across England and northern France.
Fireball over the English Channel on September 8, 2019 – heatmap. Credit: AMS
The event sparked police search in Plymouth, looking for a possible plane crash. After deploying helicopters to search the area, the police concluded there had been no plane crash in the area.
"We are as satisfied as we can be that this has not been a light aircraft crash. The expert opinion of trained search officers is that if there had been an aircraft crash, assets in the air would have seen some debris. There have also been a couple of reports from the Cardiff and Dorset areas of people watching meteor showers across the South West," Plymouth police said in a statement.
Rentrée atmosphérique #bolide du 08/09/2019 4:51:36 UTC (6:51:36 CEST) au dessus #Manche #English_Channel
Enregistrée par une camera BOAM à #MaysurOrne #Calvados #Normandie par S. Jouin
info : https://t.co/tsOfFBlBRp #meteore @UKMeteorNetwork pic.twitter.com/Jyl51Im5cZ— BOAM (@BOAM_meteore) September 8, 2019
Richard Bassom caught this morning fireball from New Forest at 04:51:38 UT this morning, lasting about 25 seconds pic.twitter.com/LktCfOVOuW
— UK Meteor Network (@UKMeteorNetwork) September 8, 2019
Richard Fleet from our Wilcot station captured the morning #fireball from two cameras. Long and slow meteor lasting over 25 seconds pic.twitter.com/fK5SpnJDas
— UK Meteor Network (@UKMeteorNetwork) September 8, 2019
UKMON and BOAM record a fireball over the English Channel – https://t.co/NVHaaZBYIE 8 September 2019 at 4:51:43 UT British UKMON and French BOAM meteor detection networks recorded a great fireball across the channel.
The event was a slow-moving bright meteor, captured by f… pic.twitter.com/oNp081neGK
— MeteorNews (@eMeteorNews) September 8, 2019
Featured image: Fireball over the English Channel on September 8, 2019. Credit: UKMON
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