Talk About Too Close For Comfort

If there really is a Chicken Little, it appears he was on the LAN Chile airliner that barely escaped being struck by flaming debris Tuesday night, while flying to Auckland, New Zealand over the Pacific Ocean.

The West Australian newspaper reports the pilot of the Airbus A340 flying from Santiago, Chile, got on the horn with controllers at Auckland Oceanic Center following the close encounter. The falling star -- what was left from a deorbited Russian satellite -- streaked across the sky approximately five nautical miles from the airliner.

One plane spotter who was monitoring the frequency at the time told the West Australian the pilot "reported that the rumbling noise from the space debris could be heard over the noise of the aircraft... He described he saw a piece of debris lighting up as it re-entered."

"He was one very worried pilot, as you would imagine," the spotter added.

The LAN flight landed safely at Auckland... with a relieved flight crew, who has quite a story to tell. They weren't the only ones who experienced the close encounter; the pilot of an Aerolineas Argentinas flight heading the opposite direction also reportedly saw the flaming satellite, and asked to turn back to Auckland -- for fear of being hit by additional space projectiles.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for aerial navigation provider Airways New Zealand confirmed the incident took place -- adding the agency had been warned by Russian authorities of the impending reentry, although it was supposed to have happened Wednesday morning.

"Either the time that was indicated to us was incorrect or the satellite de-orbited early," the spokesman said. "But clearly there has been a timing issue."

As they say, timing IS everything.

FMI: www.lan.com