New Jersey Space Junk? Piece of Metal Falls From Sky Near Workers

A heavy, metal object dropped out of the sky at a New Jersey plant, hitting the ground near workers, who are speculating that it may be space junk.

NBC New York reported that a 5-by-5 inch piece of metal debris fell at the Secaucus Waste Water Treatment Plant, hit a railing, and then banged off of a concrete tank before landing about 25 feet away from employees.

“It was pretty loud. It was a pretty loud bang and we looked up and something was flipping in the air,” employee Vic Suppa told CBS New York.

“It shook the guys up a little bit because, quite frankly, if it would’ve hit them, it would’ve killed them,” foreman Steven Bronowich told CBS.

Theories on what the object might be are many and varied.

“What they show online for a space shuttle tile, it’s a little thicker than what we actually have here, but it certainly looks like it,” Bronowich told CBS. “I don’t know if it’s actually a tile, but I know it did come out of the sky.

But with the last space shuttle mission occurring more than three years ago, that theory might not fit. A NASA spokesperson told CBS that it didn’t look like a tile, and all the tiles from previous shuttle missions had been accounted for. In the statement, NASA said each tile had a number on it.

The treatment plant employees told CBS that they’re used to a few outdoor hazards while doing their job, but they’re usually caused by area wildlife.

“We had a turkey, couple of foxes, snapping turtles, couple of snakes, ground hogs,” Bronowich told CBS. “We’ve been dropped on by seagulls, crabs, they fly over, they drop the remains of the crab. One of my guys got hit in the head with it. Dive-bombing seagulls.”

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