Meteor Explodes Above New Zealand...07/07/99
By Ray Lilly (Associated Press)
 

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) _ A meteor exploded in the sky above New Zealand on Wednesday, casting an eerie blue light and showering the earth with fragments from space.

The explosion at 4:15 p.m. (1:15 a.m. EDT) was followed by smoke and a flood of phone calls from people who saw the meteor streaking across the sky, the Carter Observatory in Wellington said. No injuries were reported. ``It was picked up by aircraft and on radar, so we've had someair traffic controllers calling too,'' said John Field, the observatory's public programs officer.

The meteor was likely to have been either metal or rock and was probably as big as a car, Field said. A rock meteor would have broken up into a shower of stones as it came through the atmosphere. On average, one meteor falls to Earth each week, he said.

Police said hundreds of people reported seeing the meteor over a remote part of New Zealand's North Island _ between the cities of Napier on the east coast and New Plymouth on the west coast. After a loud explosion, the meteor apparently broke up in the atmosphere, leaving a vapor trail and blue cloud hanging, police said.

Reports of objects falling to the ground were received across the region, police said, but no pieces have been reported found. Brendon Bradley, an instructor with the New Plymouth Aero Club, said he was flying when he saw the meteor. ``It was just a bright light, exactly like a flare,'' he said. ``Afterwards there was smoke in the sky.''

Other witnesses described a bright flash, followed by an explosion and a cloud of brown smoke. ``A big fiery ball came down. There was a terrific red glow and it sort of went pop,'' said Eric Ray, a resident of the town of Te Aroha. One man told police the explosion sounded like a natural gas tanker igniting.