Near Miss
There are things that you simply can’t explain, and while I was on holiday in Greece I experienced something unexplainable that I’m still looking for answers to.
On the 14th August, at around 3pm, I was lying on a sunbed next to the pool at our rented villa in Skiathos. The sun was blazing,the sky was pretty much devoid of cloud, and I was facing North-east ish with the sun behind me. the villa faced due south - out to the Meditteranean sea around a mile away. There were tall pine trees behind me, with a gap in the trees a little to my right. I was reading a book, and sitting in an upright position. My daughter was sitting on a sunbed in the shade of the villa roof canopy, and my wife was indoors.
I suddenly noticed in my periphery, a dark object maybe a bit larger than the size of a tennis ball flying past my right hand side - travelling North East to South West at an incredible speed. I didn’t view it directly as it was so fast and immediate. Its path was very shallow - it didn’t drop, and it seemed to be about 20ft from the ground. It passed through the gap in the pine trees and made the loudest “woosh” noise I’ve ever heard.
My daughter jumped up from her sunbed, and Tina ran out from inside the villa to find out what the noise was. There was no crash or thud. We were situated on quite a steep hill with mostly olive groves and pine trees below, so the trajectory of the object could have taken it down to the sea or perhaps into the foliage.
This is the gap in the trees that the object passed through. It would have been great if it had actually hit the trees
There are a few possibilities as to what this object was - but after much deliberation and a bit of research i’ve had to assume it was a piece of a meteorite that had managed to get to earth. It was actually during the peak of the Perseid meteor shower (which I’d stayed up to watch the night before), and reseaching with Chat GPT brought up some recorded instances of meteoroid fragments being witnessed coming down to earth. The following summation of the sounds heard from the transcripts of eye witnesses was generated:
Whistling / whooshing: From aerodynamic drag at supersonic or near-supersonic speeds.
Sharp cracks / bangs: From fragmentation or sonic booms.
Thuds: As they strike the ground or objects nearby.
I submitted my experience as described above to a relevant sub-Reddit on that platform where meteorite landings were being discussed in an attempt for some of the “experts” on there to analyse it - but I wasn’t taken seriously. Some moderator actually banned me without reason. My guess is that the experts are actually just fat blokes who don’t shower, can’t get girlfriends, and live with their mother.
So, that’s my story. There are no reports of landed objects there which isn’t surprising as it’s all farmland. In the meantime, I’m convinced I’m one of the few people in the world to ever witness a space rock fall to earth at close quarters.
