NJ family nearly crushed when massive ice chunk seemingly falls from plane, tears through home
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A New Jersey family was nearly crushed when a massive chunk of ice seemingly fell off a plane and crashed through the roof of their suburban home on Wednesday.
The frightening scene happened around 9:30 p.m. in Paterson when the Gomez family was seated at their backyard table less than 12 feet from the impact zone, according to News 12 New Jersey.
“Out of nowhere, you just hear a hollow sound coming down, and honestly, we didn’t think anything of it, and then you just hear a big DOOOOSH!” Sabrina Gomez told the outlet.
Security footage from the backyard shows the family jumping out of their seats when they heard the chunk of ice plummet down to earth.
“It was big stones … I guess it was a big square. When it came down, it smashed everything,” Paul Gomez said.
The Gomezes’ home sits directly underneath several flight paths, according to the outlet.
“When we look up, it’s basically like a plane flying by,” said Sabrina Gomez.
The family rushed to the front of their house, where they took a video of pieces of ice spread out all over the driveway.
“Honestly, it was a little terrifying, but thank God it didn’t hit anybody, and it hit the floor. It hit the roof, thank God,” Sabrina Gomez shared.
The damage from the block of ice was so severe that they may need an entirely new roof.
Nobody was harmed when the ice came hurtling down onto their home.
The family filed a claim with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to investigate the ice that they believe fell from a plane passing overhead.
The chilling incident comes nearly a year after a chunk of ice weighing between 15 and 20 pounds struck a Massachusetts home, according to the Associated Press.
Jeff Ilg and his wife, Amelia Rainville, were sitting in their home in Shirley when the block of ice came crashing through their roof in August 2023.
“We heard an explosion, basically,” Ilg said. “The loudest pop, bang I’ve ever heard.”
Ilgs bolted upstairs to check on their children, who somehow stayed asleep through the noise.
He then ran outside, seeing a giant block of ice on his back step and debris scattered around the backyard and roof.
Ilg grabbed a flashlight and began searching for damage but found none until he spotted the hole in the roof.
He then went up to his attic, where he found another chuck of ice.
“Sure enough, it was in there, and it was big,” Ilg told the outlet, saying the impact on the outside of their home was about 18 inches to 2 feet in size.
The couple assumed it fell from an airplane traveling to Boston Logan International Airport — which is about 47 miles from their home.
Airplanes can ice up due to supercooled water, an unstable liquid that freezes when it hits an aircraft in the sky, according to the FAA.
“This can happen when an aircraft flies near the top of a cold air mass beneath a layer of warm air, such as during freezing rain ahead of a warm front in winter. As the aircraft flies through the warm, moist air that’s been sucked up into the cold, it hits the supercooled water in liquid form, which then freezes on the leading edges of the plane,” the agency explained.
With Post wires
