Norfolk, Virginia, mystery object

I'm just reading about the above and have put it is this forum because it has all the "classics" of sealed off area, weather balloon etc.

See here

Simply nobody will be giving any credence to officials in America who have stated that a mystery object which fell from the sky this week - after which the surrounding area was evacuated and sealed off for some time by police and military personnel - was just a "weather balloon".

Reportedly, large numbers of government operatives from various agencies converged urgently on a residential neighbourhood in Norfolk, Virginia, on Tuesday night after an unidentified object fell from the sky there. News reports describe the object as "something odd", with some eyewitness accounts saying it resembled a balloon and others suggesting that the crashlanded artifact had a structure similar to "styrofoam".

it all sound like a pretty extreme reaction for something that's nothing

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reply to post by nomadros


These days, any excuse any local or state government can have to over react is a valid excuse for them to over react.

Leave a child's toy unattended in a park, and 10 blocks will get evacuated with the bomb squad called in.

Local authorities are just abusing their powers to over react, and maybe take advantage of opportunity to unlawfully enter people's houses under some pretense or another.

What's fun and unusual about this case is the involvement of the military.

,with some eyewitness accounts saying it resembled a balloon and others suggesting that the crashlanded artifact had a structure similar to "styrofoam".

Yeah, this is no alien ship or anything. I am going to assume this is a surveillance drone or some sort of equipment that has pictures etc that of course, we the public cannot see.

I think that is why there was a huge reaction to this. Personally.

Styrofoam used to insulate the contents at high altitude and it's lightweight...I'll go Weather Balloon, some sort of atmospheric recording equipment.
Made in the good ol US of A.

reply to post by Druscilla
[more So we have authorities on scene military and supposed secretive govertnmrnt types and yet we have to consult NASA and approach a weather balloon with a robot. I guess that adds up

Originally posted by nomadros
I'm just reading about the above and have put it is this forum because it has all the "classics" of sealed off area, weather balloon etc.

See here

Simply nobody will be giving any credence to officials in America who have stated that a mystery object which fell from the sky this week - after which the surrounding area was evacuated and sealed off for some time by police and military personnel - was just a "weather balloon".

Reportedly, large numbers of government operatives from various agencies converged urgently on a residential neighbourhood in Norfolk, Virginia, on Tuesday night after an unidentified object fell from the sky there. News reports describe the object as "something odd", with some eyewitness accounts saying it resembled a balloon and others suggesting that the crashlanded artifact had a structure similar to "styrofoam".

it all sound like a pretty extreme reaction for something that's nothing

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edit on 2/8/2013 by nomadros because: (no reason given)

Well, it depends on which report of the "reaction" you are talking about.
This one:

People living and working in the immediate area were rapidly evacuated and the district was sealed off by a combination of police and military personnel. The presence of operatives from shadowy federal agencies in overall charge of the incident was - of course - not mentioned by spokesmen briefing the media.

or this one:

...The bomb squad used a robot to get a closer look at the square Styrofoam box package in the street. The box had a balloon attached to it and one person told authorities it was making a strange noise.

As a precaution, people living close to the item were evacuated.

The first story that mentions "operatives from shadowy federal agencies" provides us with no more evidence of these "shadowy operatives" other than one mention of them. The TV news talks about bomb squads, but no "shadowy operatives". I suppose federal people who investigate possible terrorist bomb plots may have been called in, but what would make them "shadowy"?


Basically what it sounds like happened here is that an odd-looking box/package was found, and they called the bomb squad and evacuated homes near the "package". This does not sound like an extreme reaction at all. If this was an unknown package found in an abandoned duffel bag on the sidewalk, they may have done the same thing (i.e., called in the bomb squad and evacuate the immediate area).

During World War II, the Japanese sent out balloons with bombs attached to them toward the West Coast of the US. On of these balloons was found in the Oregon woods by a church group out enjoying a nice picnic. The bomb exploded, killing five children and a pregnant woman:

On May 5, 1945, a pregnant woman and five children were killed when they discovered a balloon bomb that had landed in the forest of Gearhart Mountain in Southern Oregon. Pastor Archie Mitchell and his pregnant wife Elsie drove up to Gearhart Mountain with five of their Sunday school students (aged 11–14) to have a picnic, and Elsie and the children got out of the car at Bly, Oregon, while Archie drove on to find a parking spot. As Elsie and the children looked for a good picnic spot, they saw a strange balloon lying on the ground. As the group approached the balloon, a bomb attached to it exploded and Elsie and all five children were killed....

Japanese Fire Balloon

Given that it is possible for someone (such as a terrorist) to deliver a bomb on a balloon, I don't think calling the bomb squad in this Virginia instance was an overreaction at all.

The really odd thing about this is that I can find no other news about anything to do with this...so either it didn't happen or...

I mean the local papers are reporting on a chubby chihuahua getting a home and a dead dolphin found on a beach. So you can be as sure as hell they are going to report citizen evacuations and military/gov agent deployments with robots happening in town, even if the object turned out to be the insulation off a box of tuna.

But not a peep out of anyone....very odd.

COOL. We'll be down there toward the end of the month.
We'll have to keep an eye out .. an eye to the sky ..
You never know what we might see or find ...

Originally posted by nomadros
The really odd thing about this is that I can find no other news about anything to do with this...so either it didn't happen or...

I mean the local papers are reporting on a chubby chihuahua getting a home and a dead dolphin found on a beach. So you can be as sure as hell they are going to report citizen evacuations and military/gov agent deployments with robots happening in town, even if the object turned out to be the insulation off a box of tuna.

But not a peep out of anyone....very odd.

Here is a mention of it in a local paper:

Firefighters, bomb squad clear Norfolk neighborhood


and then there are the two TV news reports that you posted in your OP:

Originally posted by nomadros
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So it does seem that the local news did in fact report it. TV and newspaper.

just as the previous commentor mentioned,this was tried by the japanese in ww2,with limited success.There is a rumor,just a rumor now,that the rash of forest fires have been started by terrorists,in order to spread out our resources and money.While I highly doubt that,it would be a great way to start a fire with little or no evidence,or at least inconclusive evidence.If you could control the landing and detonation,it would be a major weapon,IF you can predict the winds and rain.

reply to post by nomadros


The Wallops island NASA facility launches tons of balloon-borne experiments, in addition to rocket flights. Side note, it was at one time capable of mounting a shuttle launch.

When an unknown device drops into a neighborhood adjacent to one of (if not THE) largest military complex in the world, yeah folks are going to get antsy.

Add to the response, that military personnel typically "buddy" up with their civie counterparts for training opportunities - such as having their med teams train in civilian hospital ERs so they can deal with actual gunshot wounds and other trauma similar to battlefield injuries, probably why a Navy bomb team also was on the scene.

reply to post by nomadros


From your link

with some eyewitness accounts saying it resembled a balloon and others suggesting that the crashlanded artifact had a structure similar to "styrofoam". According to local TV news:

Eww suspicious...hmmm strange.


Not really. Just being safe than sorry.

Originally posted by setibuddies
reply to post by nomadros

 

The Wallops island NASA facility launches tons of balloon-borne experiments, in addition to rocket flights. Side note, it was at one time capable of mounting a shuttle launch.

They've launched satellites for many years, and will be launching supply drones to the ISS -- but they never had space shuttle launch facilities.

Originally posted by JimOberg

Originally posted by setibuddies
reply to post by nomadros

 

The Wallops island NASA facility launches tons of balloon-borne experiments, in addition to rocket flights. Side note, it was at one time capable of mounting a shuttle launch.

They've launched satellites for many years, and will be launching supply drones to the ISS -- but they never had space shuttle launch facilities.

He may be thinking of Vandenburg AFB in California, at which a shuttle launch facility was built for polar launches (mainly for military uses). Shuttles launched from Florida cannot reach polar orbits, but rather equatorial orbits.

However, the launch facility and Vandenburg was never used tio launch the Space Shuttle, one reason being the changes to the shuttle program as a result of the Challenger disaster in 1986.

I think it was right to evacuate the area, and call in bomb squad etc. if it had exploded and people were hurt then that too would have been wrong, it's one of those situations when you can please some of the people some of the time but you cant please all of the people all the time.

As to what it is exactly, the public will know if it is of little importance, otherwise no one will ever know except the military of course.

And for the Japanese to be using balloons to transport bombs towards their enemies, that may be an ok idea as long as the wind doesn't change i guess.

Pity we will not know exactly what that object is, and I agree there may be a touch of paranoia infecting the US government and it's military or perhaps it's a touch of them being too full of their own self importance on this planet.

At the end of the day, if you drain all the water off this planet we would all be standing on the same piece of ground.

ive seen this kind of thing before many times. it was a balloon filled with swamp gas. nothing to see here LOL

Originally posted by filledcup
ive seen this kind of thing before many times. it was a balloon filled with swamp gas. nothing to see here LOL

Well, eyewitnesses who live in the area say it was a Styrofoam package tethered to what looked like a balloon stuck in a tree.

No swamp gas was reported.


I'm no weather-instrument-payload-thethered-to-weather-balloon expert, but watching this video of the object makes me think that's exactly what it was:

Package discovered in neighborhood turns out to be weather balloon