Mystery of pilot's metal CLIPBOARD crammed with aviation documents that fell from the sky in New York City suburb



A Long Island man was washing his van outside his home Thursday when a metal clipboard filled with aviation paperwork plummeted from the sky, landing just feet away from him.

Gus Binos, of Shirley, was left shaken by the bizarre incident that took place at around 3.30pm, when he heard something hit the ground in his driveway about 20 feet from where he was standing.

'Wow, what if I got hit with it?' Binos told the station NBC New York . 'It is a very sharp piece of metal. I mean, with the velocity that it was coming down, it would have stuck a hole in my head.'



Dangerous projectile: This pilot's metal clipboard plummeted from the sky to the ground outside a home in Long Island

Important paperwork: The clipboard contained contained flight patterns and navigation guidelines for flying through New York City's Hudson River corridor and around the Statue of Liberty

This runway map of MacArthur Airport in Islip was also found in the stack of navigation documents

The unusual projectile, believed to belong to a pilot, contained a stack of documents, including flight patterns and navigation guidelines for flying through New York City's Hudson River corridor and around the Statue of Liberty.

The clipboard also had a runway map of MacArthur Airport in Islip. It was equipped with a strap, which pilots use to secure it their legs, leaving their hands free during flight.

Close call: Gus Binos was washing his van in the driveway of his Shirley, New York, home, when the clipboard fell from the sky, landing 20 feet from where he was standing

Adam Rosenberg, a pilot and Federal Aviation Administration examiner, told NBC New York that while it is possible the aviator in question forgot the clipboard on top of a wing before flight, it is unlikely that the item would have stayed in place during takeoff.

Rosenberg added that it’s unusual, but not unheard of, for an item to fall out of a plane if the cockpit door was accidentally left ajar, or if the plane has an exposed cockpit.

Jim Peters, a spokesman for the FAA, stated that pilots are required by law to report if a part of the plane loosens or breaks off, but they are not obligated to notify the agency if they lose a personal item mid-flight.

However, investigators with the administration plan to examine the clipboard and try to determine where it came from.

The incident comes less than a week after a mystery metal bar tumbled from the sky, crashing into a Seattle home.

The 3-pound piece of lead with two holes in it smashed clear through the roof, leaving a shoe box-sized hole in the ceiling Sunday.

Luckily, no one was injured, but the family who lives in the house and authorities are scratching their heads wondering where it could have come from.

Surprise! A family was shocked Sunday when this chunk of lead smashed through their roof and into their Seattle home

Chipping in? Viewers of a local news station that ran the story wrote in with a different possibility. They said the hole was made by a grinding 'tooth' from a wood chipper

It has been suggested by police that the piece of metal came from a passing aircraft, but the FAA has rejected that theory.