About a year ago, a chunk of ice broke through the roof of the Weingand family's farm in Schmerold near Wall.
It came from an airplane.
And that wasn't the only such case in the region.
Wall
- It was a rather mild winter day between the years.
On December 28, 2019, a Saturday, the blow came out of the blue, hail or other capricious weather excluded.
At noon - the photovoltaic system indicated the error at 12:17 p.m. - a chunk of ice broke through the roof of the threshing floor at the Weingand family's farm in Schmerold near Wall, including the solar panel.
Around 4 p.m. Josef Weingand wanted to fetch hay in the threshing floor on his farm, where he keeps 25 calves.
Then he saw it: There was a large hole in the roof, underneath two thick chunks of ice.
It was probably a single one who burst on an aluminum support.
Weingand immediately thought of an airplane as the cause: “It was clear to me that this was not coming from a bird.” The splinters of the solar system were everywhere in the hay, which the part-time farmer and car mechanic had to dispose of.
"I can't give my critters any broken glass to eat, and you can never get them out again."
When the police first got rid of him, Weingand was at first at a loss and turned to our newspaper.
During the research, it quickly became clear that the police were responsible, as was clear from an information sheet from the Federal Aviation Office, which in turn made it clear that it was not responsible itself.
There was also a trace of the cause: an Austrian Airlines flight from London to Innsbruck.
The Airbus passed Schmerold at the time in question.
This was finally confirmed by the investigations of the police: As Weingand reported on request, they later explained to him that the chunk of ice was probably formed by moisture in the air we breathe, which could freeze when we left the cabin under certain weather conditions.
In any case, it did not come from the toilet system: “That was pure, clean ice”, it did not smell of chemicals.
+
The roof and photovoltaic system have been repaired.
Josef Weingand is happy that the airline was responsible for the damage.
© Thomas Plettenberg
Because ice deposits on the aircraft impair its flight characteristics, which in the worst case could lead to a crash, aircraft have systems that allow ice deposits to flake off at critical points.
“The pilot must even have made a request to the tower, which then approves it,” Weingand noted.
That probably happened just about Schmerold.
“Of course, from a height of five or six kilometers, the pilot cannot say exactly where the chunk is falling,” says Weingand.
Normally, however, such large chunks shouldn't go down or hit the ground.
The airline initially left a request from our newspaper about the background unanswered.
Appeal: draw the conclusions from such dangerous incidents
It took Weingand several weeks to find the right contact person from the airline.
In Weingand's case, the airline paid for his damage - just under 3900 euros, including 105 euros for the loss of electricity revenue.
That was important to the catfish: that someone who caused the damage is found and is responsible for the damage himself.
He preferred not to take advantage of the building insurance's promise to take over the damage on goodwill - not that this would have unpleasant consequences in the event of regular damage later.
Not only good things come from above: so often airplane parts crash from the sky
The 46-year-old would like to see more detailed investigations carried out for flight practice into how such incidents come about and how they can be better ruled out.
There are always reports of chunks of ice from airplanes - always from approach lanes at airports.
It was pure coincidence that nothing happened to anyone in the Wall district of Warngau.
“If there can be systemic ice deposits like this, you would have to take care of it.” Nevertheless, Weingand himself does not have a queasy feeling when he looks at the sky today and sees a plane there.
"The likelihood that something like this will happen is very small," he says.
"Maybe I should play the lottery one day."
Similar case in nearby Schweinthal near Miesbach
Just a few kilometers away from Wall, in Schweinthal, eleven years before the Schmerold incident, a chunk of ice that could only have come from an airplane fell.
Marianne Bauer still vividly remembers that warm summer day in June 2008: She was just in the kitchen, her son Helmut was standing on the terrace, talking to the neighbor when a knock came out of the blue.
At first she thought a tire had blown somewhere.
But in the meadow, not an arm's length away from where her son was standing, lay the fragments of a lump of ice at least the size of a child's head.
"If he had taken a step ..." The neighbor pointed out that the roof of the house had broken through.
The chunk must have broken.
The ice cream they put in a bag in the freezer compartment for evidence smelled of chemicals.
Marianne Bauer, then 64 years old, called the police.
They apparently thought at first that the woman on the line had a roof damage in the figurative sense.
When she had convinced her that she already had her senses together, the police came.
In the case of the Bauers, it was not possible to determine which aircraft the Brocken came from.
The building insurance paid for the damage of 400 euros.
What is disgusting falling from the sky? Mysterious chunk meets car in Augsburg
ag