Utah woman's goat killed by falling ice chunk from airplane

The bizarre accident occurred on May 6 around 9:30 AM while Lewis was at her Eagle Mountain home. She shared with local TV station KUTV that a loud bang startled her and shook the entire house. Rushing outside, she found her animals in a state of panic. "The roosters were going crazy, the horses were freaking out," she said, recalling the chaotic scene.

Upon investigating, Lewis discovered a significant hole in the shed's roof, where her goats were sheltered. Beneath the hole, she found one of her goats injured and bleeding profusely, with chunks of ice scattered around. "Based on the size of the hole and the ice pieces, I reckon it was a chunk of ice about the size of a basketball," she explained.

Photographs from the incident showed ice around the roof's hole and the shed's interior damaged by the ice chunk. The police, upon inspection, concluded that the most plausible cause was ice falling from an airplane. "They mentioned we're under the flight path. The possibility of ice shedding from an airplane was something completely new to me," Lewis shared.

Lewis rushed her injured goat to the veterinarian, only to learn that the animal's injuries were too severe, leading to its euthanization. She reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Salt Lake City International Airport seeking answers about the freak incident, given her home's location beneath the flight path. The FAA has begun an investigation to identify the source aircraft from which the ice might have detached.

The unusual event has since left Lewis feeling anxious about overhead flights, concerned over the slim possibility of a recurrence. "Every time a plane passes overhead, I can't help but feel a bit of dread," she admitted. Although rare, ice falling from aircraft does occur. Airplanes are usually treated with special fluids to prevent ice accumulation while traversing cold atmospheric layers, yet such incidents, though infrequent, have been documented before.