The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)has launched an investigation into a large piece of ice that fell from the sky and damaged the
roof of a house at northern side of Chicago, aviation officials said Thursday.
The home, on the 4200 block of North Wolcott Avenue of Chicago, was hit by a falling ice chunk on Wednesday night. The house is about 10 miles from Runway 28 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and lies under one of the airport's flight
paths.
The FAA intends to look into whether any planes approaching O' Hare at the time of the
incident may have leaked water.
"We heard a big boom. The whole house shook," said Paul Dowd of the unexpected encounter with the ice chunk.
His family heard a bang about 7:52 p.m. and rushed out of the house, where they found remnants of a large piece of ice that had struck and damaged their roof.
The family has filed a police report and contacted their insurance company.
According to aviation officials, FAA investigators' first step will be to review radar data from the time of the impact to determine which planes were overhead. Runway 28, an east-west runway, was used for landing Wednesday night by a variety of planes from around the country.
Once those planes are identified, investigators will seek to determine if any of them reported a leak, providing the simplest possible answer for the source of the ice.