[01] Bimal K. Srivastava, Aviation Consultant, Aero Survey, Former General Manager, Airports Authority of India, New Delhi, India.

Often a strange phenomenon of fall of ice (Usually blue or green in colour, commonly called as Blue Ice, but may be of other colour also) from sky is reported in media. This is normally not a weather related phenomenon, but may occur due leakage from the lavatories of a commercial airliner, which gets mixed with the Sanitizing liquid or deodorant, normally dark blue in colour, and then it gets frozen in the form of ice due to extremely cold atmospheric temperatures outside the aircraft. A number of such cases of ice fall from the sky from India collected from various Media Sources in India in the form of News Paper reports (With photographs, Videos and others without photographs) & TV coverage from the year 2004 to Feb 2015, were examined. The data collected was utilized to arrive at the conclusion and it was seen that many of these cases were pertaining to the fall of Blue ice from aircraft. Prominent features are that cases with colour of ice blue or green were taken as confirmed cases of aircraft toilet ice. Similar phenomenon of abnormally large chunks of ice falling from a clear sky known as “Megacryometeors” (Term coined by Jesus Martinez-Frias, Planetary Geologist in January 2000) is a weather related phenomena, and is different from aircraft ice. Only large & medium passenger airliners operating commercial flights equipped with full-fledged passenger toilets are involved in such incidents, for which, some kind of leakage or seepage from aircraft is mandatory requirement. The incidents may occur only on established air routes or close to an airport where passenger airliners are operating and normally occur during descent or cruise, but not during take-off or climb. Aircraft involved in incident may not be necessarily be seen by the eye-witnesses. Frequency of occurrence of fall of aircraft ice is becoming common calling for appropriate measures for control and mitigation of such cases, as suggested in paper.

Blue Ice, Aircraft Ice, Aircraft Toilets, Commercial Airliners, Ice from Sky, Leakage from Toilet Drains, Megacryometeors, Chunk of Ice

[01] “News Paper Report”-Hindi News Paper “Dainik Jagaran, Delhi Edition Dt. 19th May 2008 (Appended). [02] http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Plane+waste+water+in+blue+ice+form+drops+near+Mount+Abu.-a0209371910 [03] ‘Falling Ice Blocks from Sky – A Case Study’ by *Sharma Pankaj, Kachhal P.I., Vyas Sameer, Kaushal Manorma, Mahure N.V., Sivakumar N. published in ‘Journal of Research in Chemistry and Environment’ Vol. 2 Issue 1 January 2012(310-313)-ISSN 2248-9649, Central Soil and Materials Research Station, New Delhi, INDIA (Appended) [04] (Newspaper Report-Mysterious mass falls from sky Source: The Sangai Express http://www.e-pao.net/GP.asp?src=7..010210.Feb10) [05] News Report in Gujarati: http://www.divyabhaskar.co.in/news/UGUJ-PAT-snow-come-in-sky-4329630-PHO.html. [06] (News Report published in “The Times of India” dated 25th Jan 2014 (TNN) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/vadodara/Ice-like-chunks-fall-from-sky-spread-panic/articleshow/29344379.cms) [07] (‘Cases of Fall of Blue Aircraft Ice from Sky In India’ by Bimal K. Srivastava, published in ‘Journal of Aerospace Sciences and Technologies’ [Aeronautical Society of India], May 2011 issue (Volume 63, Number 2)-ISSN 0972-950x”). [08] (‘When Blue Ice Falls from the Sky’ by Srivastava, Bimal K. published in Science Reporter, SR Vol.48(07) [July 2011], available online. Link http://nopr.niscair.res.in/handle/123456789/12156) [09] FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) Circular http://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsid=6659 dated January 1, 2005.) [10] (Environ Monit Assess. 2011 Feb 23. [Epub ahead of print], Preliminary evaluation of evaluation of the efficiency of aircraft liquid waste treatment using resolvable sanitizing liquid: a case study in Changchun by Xu J, Yang J, Zhao N, Sheng L, Zhao Y, Tang Z, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, Jilin Province, 130024, China, xujl449@nenu.edu.cn. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21340546) [11] (Wikipedia -Link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_ice_%28aircraft%29) [12] (Martinez-Frias, Jesus; Delgado Huertas, Antonio (2006). "Megacryometeors: Distribution on Earth and Current Research". AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment 35 (6): 314. doi:10.1579/06-S-187.1.) [13] (Miscellaneous News Reports appearing in various languages in India and available with author).