BRIDGEWATER, Tuesday, August 18, The mystery surrounding an object that crash-landed in Bridgewater two weeks ago has been revealed to be nothing but a dull, old parachute test.
Rumours swirled when a crater containing circuit boards, computer chips and other electronics was found by the side of a highway two weeks ago by locals.
But talk of UFO’s, meteorites or secret government experiments were discredited by Australian Skydive Bridgewater director Ralph Hamilton-Presgrave.
“We were testing a parachute.”
“We take it up in a helicopter to about 9000 feet. We drop it and it freefalls, then it goes through a staged opening sequence. The parachute opens and lands safely.”
“It was travelling at about 300 knots, so while there was no explosion there was a big ‘whomp’. Like when you hit a kangaroo, but a lot faster.”
The parachute, designed as a recovery system for experimental aircraft, malfunctioned and landed outside the company’s 115-hectare property without properly opening. The contents of the crater, the electronics, were used for recording data for research purposes.
Hamilton-Presgrave said a team of fifteen were monitoring the area with two way radios, and if anyone had entered the site the test would have been called off.
“There are no buildings around and there was no danger in this test.”
A spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority said that while the test was not a success the proper safety precautions were followed. The spokesperson guaranteed that an evaluation of the area had been conducted and the road closed before the test.
However, Hamilton-Presgrave admitted that the incident had caused the loss of one life.
“We did kill a field mouse, so there was one casualty.”
The six meter crater has since been filled in.