Part of plane hits Suffolk house

AN investigation has been launched after a piece of a passenger plane fell out of the sky and hit a house in Suffolk.

A plane lost part of its wing as it flew over the county from Helsinki to Stansted Airport on Sunday evening.

The 2.5ft by 1.5ft piece of debris broke away from the aircraft and landed on Sheena Fisher's home in Stratford St Andrew, near Saxmundham.

It dropped from a height of around 20,000ft and caused damage to roof tiles and guttering.

Just a few hours before the fuselage fell, a church fete had taken place just a stone's throw away from where it landed.

The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB), part of the Department for Transport, is now looking into why Sunday's incident happened.

Mrs Fisher said she was in the kitchen at the time and heard a loud thud.

After walking through the house, checking cupboards and doors on the way, she went to the front door to find one of her neighbours standing there holding the piece of plane.

She said: “My neighbours saw this piece spiralling down but there was no aircraft visible at the time.”

The incident happened at about 7.15pm and Mrs Fisher later found out that the Blue1 aircraft, part of Scandinavian Airlines, had safely landed at Stansted at 7.30pm.

She said: “It was really lucky there was no major disaster from this, it could've been really nasty and it's a bit frightening that it happened - I feel I should be looking up at the sky all the time now.”

The captain of the flight was aware something may have dropped from the plane while he flew over Felixstowe and reported it as soon as he landed. Air traffic control was then informed.

A spokesperson for Stansted Airport said: “It's a very rare occurrence and it's not something that happens a lot and thankfully nobody was hurt.”

He said the AAIB had been informed.

A spokesperson for the Department of Transport said: “The AAIB is investigating the cause of the incident and will publish the report in due course.”