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American Morning

People Across East Report Strange Fireball in Sky

Aired July 24, 2001 - 09:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's Washington bureau chief Frank Sesno was driving in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, when he heard what sounded like a sonic boom. He says whatever it was last night, it is the talk of town in Lewisburg this morning. He joins us by phone from there.

Good morning -- Frank.

FRANK SESNO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brian.

NELSON: There is a gentleman we just saw on our air who said he saw what appeared to be a refrigerator. Did you see anything like that?

SESNO: We are still looking for the dryer.

No, we didn't see a refrigerator, but we sure heard a very loud boom. This is the home of Bucknell University. The windows up in the car. It was a very discernible explosion, I thought. We rolled down the windows to see if we could hear anything more or hear any sirens after the fact, in case it was something that required emergency personnel; it did not.

Shortly thereafter, we were in a hotel restaurant, and it truly swept through the staff. Everybody was talking about it in the restaurant. There were several people who had talked about seeing this streak of light or a ball of flame, as one person described it. It's interesting that at the hotel here, they not only heard it, but felt it shake the place. And one of the people at the desk last night was telling me that she called the manager of the hotel to suggest they get up to the rooftop, to see if anything had struck this building. So that's how close it seemed, and how it was not only heard, but felt.

So knowledge is they got into rooftop to see if anything struck the building. That's how close it seemed and not only heard but felt.

NELSON: So you saw and heard it?

No, I didn't see it. I merely heard it. It was a very rapid, sort of low, rumbling boom, as I say, through the closed windows of the car. So if you are out there or you were in a building, and you not only heard it, but you felt the rumble. As I say, some of these people were up to the rooftops. I spoke to the state and local police in this part of the state, and you reported, as you did, being flooded on both their emergency and nonemergency phone lines with people who are calling in having seen this ball of flame, having heard this sonic boom, thinking it was explosion -- simply not knowing what it was.

NELSON: We use the term sonic boom; we use the term explosion. Is there any difference in your mind between the two from what you heard?

SESNO: I didn't feel the ground shake, to be quite honest. If it had been an explosion of something on the ground, I would have expected that. It did feel and sound to me more like it was up in the sky and took place up above us. Again, I didn't see it. That was just this sort of very quick, very sudden, and dramatic rumble.

NELSON: When you stopped, what were other people describing that they saw at the time when you spoke to them?

SESNO: As I say, this thing sort of swept through this crowded restaurant where we were shortly thereafter, and people described it as a meteor; that's what some people did. There were suggestions -- rumors, really, that it was a plane crash or something like that -- I quickly called police and figured if it were something very serious and tragic like that, that would have been something that would have come to the attention of emergency services personnel right away, and that was not the case.

So it was this grand sense of mystery, and there was also a fair bit of joking afterwards, Brian, I must tell you. People were out looking for short little green men with fiery eyes. Nobody saw that.

NELSON: Frank, you are on your vacation. Go back and enjoy it. Thank you for taking the time...

SESNO: If we see anything, we'll call it in. We want CNN to be the first with those interviews.

NELSON: OK, that's a deal. We'll see you later.

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