- Street cleaner Serhiy Myeshkov was nearly hit by block of ice falling from the sky
- 20kg ice block crashed to the ground near Kew Gardens Station, west London
- Onlookers described it as something from the movie ‘The Day After Tomorrow’
A street cleaner had a brush with death after a block of ice fell from the sky across the road from where he was working.
CCTV footage captured the moment a 20kg (44lb) ice block crashed to the ground, sending up a spray of frozen chunks on the street near Kew Gardens Station in west London.
The area where Serhiy Myeshkov was working is underneath a busy flight path near Heathrow, and several have speculated the ice fell from a passing plane.
International Chauffeurs driver Amir Khan, 39, told the Evening Standard: ‘It was like the start of a disaster movie like The Day After Tomorrow.
‘It made such a loud noise like a meteorite crashing down. The street cleaner was so confused and scared. Everyone came running out to look at the sky. It was crazy.’
Another passerby Vipin Chopra said it sounded like a ‘huge explosion’, and added: ‘The airline is at fault, its under a flightpath.’
Street cleaner Serhiy Myeshkov was just yards away when the 20kg (44lb) block of ice fell from the sky
The incident happened shortly after 9am on Wednesday on North Road.
A spokesperson for the UK Civil Aviation Authority said: ‘Although ice does very occasionally fall from aircraft, it can also be the result of meteorological phenomena.
‘We receive around 30 reported ice falls every year, although we are not certain how many of these incidents are the result of ice falling from an aircraft.’
Ice falling from planes can come from leaks, or from ice that has formed on the outside of the aircraft in the cold air at high altitudes breaking off after hitting a patch of warmer air.
The incident happened shortly after 9am on Wednesday on North Road near Kew Gardens Station in west London. Chunks of ice were sent flying across the street