Far Out Friday: Flying, frozen faeces causes home damage

There have been some pretty strange insurance claims over the years but the story of the flying, frozen faeces smashing through the roof of one family home surely takes the cake.

Insurance News

By

Anyone in the insurance industry for any period of time is likely to see their fair share of strange claim forms but this one could take some beating.

A retired English couple heard a loud crash at their home and rushed outside to find out what the damage was and where it came from.

Thinking there had been an accident on the road, Keith and Ruth Mead where surprised (to say the least) when no damage was found.

Until they looked up.

A sizable hole in their roof was noticed and the culprit? A chunk of frozen excrement dropped from a passenger jet flying over the house.

The 17cm, 450g block of ice hurtled thousands of feet before it made its home in the roof of Keith and Ruth Mead who struggled to think of what to write on their claim form.

“We're sure it came from an airliner passing overhead. Where else would it have come from?” Keith told The Daily Mail.

“It would be from the plane's toilets, it was yellow and brown in colour. Falling down all that way, it would quickly freeze before it reached the ground.

“On our insurance forms do we put 'house hit by frozen urine and poo', will they believe us?”

Quick thinking Keith knew the insurance questions would come so he triple-bagged the offending ice block and popped it in the freezer.

Insurance assessors were on the scene within hours and the Meads are thankful their insurance will cover the damage bill, which could top $2000.

I was in the study when I heard an almighty crash. I immediately thought a major accident had happened outside the house so I went outside to have a look,” Keith said.

“I was so shocked to find our roof tiles smashed all over the road and ice everywhere, metres away from the house.

“I looked up and saw there was a big hole in the roof and I then realised what had happened. The block of ice that hit the roof must have been huge, it had smashed into smaller pieces and they were all over the place. 

“We’re lucky we have insurance otherwise we would have to pay for it ourselves. 'It’s annoying for us but it could have been a lot worse.”

Ruth, who was in the loft of the house at the time, was lucky to escape injury and described the moment and how lucky it was that people escaped injury.

“I immediately thought, thank goodness it didn’t hit anyone - it could have killed them,” Ruth said.

“It happened around 9am so only a short time after mums and dads were walking their children to school. It could have easily hit some of them.”

The Civil Aviation Authority in the United Kingdom said that events like this are incredibly rare with only 25 reported ice falls per year compared to 2.5 million flights which make their way through UK airspace annually.

Keep up with the latest news and events

Join our mailing list, it’s free!