South Georgia man thinks he found shuttle debris

AP ^ | 02/05/03

[Pokey78]

CUTHBERT, Ga. -- A south Georgia man believes he found a piece of the space shuttle Columbia on his land, which is hundreds of miles east of where most of the debris has fallen.

William Burnett came across what looked like a broken roof shingle Sunday while he was mowing part of his 90 acres of farmland in southwest Georgia. Burnett called state emergency officials when he and some friends couldn't identify the black, featherweight object.

"It's black and it looks like it has fiberglass going through it," said Burnett's wife Gloria. "It's black as coal and about the size of a half sheet of notebook paper."

The object also smells like a burnt electrical device, said Max Pittman, director of Randolph County's Emergency Management Agency.

State authorities contacted the Federal Emergency Management Agency and NASA about the object, said Lisa Ray, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

"Nothing has been confirmed at this point," Ray said. "With all the debris they are recovering, it would take a little while to get to Georgia."

Authorities told the Burnett's not to touch the debris, until officials could reach their home in Springvale -- eight miles west of Cuthbert -- in about a week.

No one has touched the debris on Burnett's property, Pittman said. To make sure it didn't float away, they covered it with a bucket and placed a cinder block atop the bucket.

NASA officials sent teams Tuesday to inspect reports of debris as far west as California, but said they didn't know of debris reports east of Louisiana. The search thus far has focused from central Texas to central Louisiana.

"It's very unlikely for it to reach as far east as Georgia," said Dave Bary, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency, which is leading the search for shuttle debris. "Over time as the investigation continues, if it is found that shuttle debris has drifted that far, it will become a part of the investigation."

Also, Florida officials at the Kennedy Space Center are looking to find out where parts of the Columbia could have fallen off during its launch.

Sorting the shuttle debris from ordinary trash is a difficult task -- one report from Yuma, Ariz., turned out to be a piece of burnt toast.

[dagnabbit]

"It's black and it looks like it has fiberglass going through it,"

Georgia Man Finds Piece of Tire!

[lizma]

I think alot of small bits will show up in late spring when people start mowing their lawns and sprucing up their yards for the summer.

Doppler radar showed a huge debris cloud moving east. It wouldn't be surprising if some of it got to Georgia.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Georgia Man Finds Old Polaroid Picture - Film at eleven!

[Howlin]

Have you seen a map of where the debris actually went?

[CPOSharky]

It could be a charred circuit board. It's pretty light and could have been carried by the jet stream.