Massive ice chunk, likely from aircraft, crashes through Noord-Brabant home

A couple from Loon op Zand in Noord-Brabant was woken up on Wednesday morning after a large chunk of ice crashed into their property, Omroep Brabant reported on Wednesday. The ice is believed to have fallen from an airplane.

Het was woensdagochtend wel even schrikken voor Monique Schoenmakers en haar vriend Robert Pijnenburg uit #LoonopZand . Rond halfacht werden ze gewekt door een enorme knal vlak buiten hun huis. "Het leek wel alsof er iets instortte. https://t.co/GfgFmKmSRA

— johan (@johan1970nl) October 11, 2023

The couple told the local broadcaster that they heard a loud bang at around 7:30 a.m. They rushed outside to discover a large block of ice had crashed on their shed, causing significant damage, especially to the roof.

The home, which is just north of Tilburg, is situated under one of the flight paths to Eindhoven Airport. It is possible that the ice formed around an aircraft and then broke off, and landing on the building.

"Sometimes four or five planes fly over here per hour,” the resident explained. "If you get hit by such a chunk of ice, you won’t live to tell the tale,” she added.

"Rain is forecast in the coming days. We've already hired a company to repair the roof,” one of the residents told the local broadcaster.

According to weatherman Wouter van Bernebeek from Weerplaza, such an ice block is definitely not a meteorological phenomenon. "The air is too warm for that. The temperature in the lower three kilometers of the atmosphere is above freezing," Van Bernebeek told Omroep Brabant.

"It's rare for ice to fall from an airplane into a residential area. It usually lands in a forest or the sea,” he explained.