By:Jeff Lipton
The plane apparently had a leak in its sanitary system that led to the formation of an ice ball at high altitude, which then dislodged and pelted the home of Syd Mandelbaum, at 405 Oceanpoint Ave. According to police, Mandelbaum's Cedarhurst home was struck by 20 to 25 pieces of the ice, some measuring 10 inches by 10 inches, sometime between 10 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 10 and 7 a.m. the following morning.
According to Fourth Precinct police, filed reports state that damage occurred to three other roofs in other areas, but they did not say exactly where.
Mandelbaum said it was lucky that no one was hit by the ice, since one of the chunks was the size of a bowling ball, weighing about 10 pounds and hurtling through the air from an altitude of 30,000 to 55,000 feet. "It easily could have killed someone," said Mandelbaum.
He said that when he woke up on the morning of Sept. 11 and saw the holes in his garage, he thought a meteor had struck his home. "It destroyed my garage," he said. "There was a huge hole in the roof."
Federal Aviation Administration officials inspected the damage and concluded that it was a case of blue ice. It was the first such reported incident in the U.S. this year, according to John Clabes, a spokesman for the FAA in Oklahoma City, where all airplane safety data records are kept. "It's pretty rare," Clabes said.
Jim Peters, another FAA spokesman, said that through the use of flight map and airline schedules and by tracking arrival and departure times from Kennedy Airport, his agency is attempting to track down the plane that unleashed the barrage of blue ice. He explained the blue ice is the waste from a lavatory aboard the aircraft, which at times can develop a leak at high altitude. The waste freezes and accumulates into a clump on the skin of the aircraft, Peters said. He said the ice breaks off in flight, usually when the aircraft decreases its altitude.
Routine inspections are done after aircraft land to make sure that ice does not accumulate on them, Peters added.
Mandelbaum said that a central beam on the roof of his garage prevented the biggest chunk of ice from striking his 2004 Corvette, which was parked inside.
Another chunk missed his Ford Expedition, which was sitting in the driveway, by two feet. If one of the chunks had struck the gas tank of the vehicle, he said, it may have caused an explosion and fire.
Mandelbaum added that it will cost him about $13,000 to repair the roof of his garage and home, and he is looking for other victims whose homes may have been hit by the debris in order to file a class action lawsuit to recoup expenses from the airline, once authorities determine which one is responsible.
He said his insurance probably will not cover the damage. But Mandelbaum said he has been stymied in his efforts to find out from authorities the names of the three other victims.
"We are taking this very seriously," said Peters. "Right now we are trying to identify the aircraft."
Kendall Lampkin, executive director of the Town-Village Aircraft Safety and Noise Abatement Committee (TVASNAC), which meets monthly at Lawrence Village Hall, said that in his seven years with the group, this is the first he has heard of such an incident. He said he will raise the issue with TVASNAC members.
Cedarhurst Mayor Andrew Parise said he heard about the incident only recently, from one of his employees, who lives across from Mandelbaum. "Oh sure, it's very scary," Parise said.
Comments about this story? JLipton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 204.
