Plane's close encounter likely a meteor, NASA says

I learned something today. Space junk falls on a schedule.

clipped from www.cbc.ca Pilots of a Chilean commercial jetliner spotted flaming objects falling past their plane as it headed for a landing in New Zealand, airline officials said Wednesday. U.S. experts suggested the objects were likely meteors burning up in the Earth's atmosphere and questioned Australian news reports suggesting they were pieces of a falling Russian spacecraft. the pilot, who was not identified, "made visual contact with incandescent fragments" several kilometres away The Airbus 340 had just entered New Zealand airspace when the flaming debris was spotted. Websites of several Australian news media quoted officials saying pieces of a Russian satellite had narrowly missed the jet. But Nicholas Johnson, orbital debris chief scientist for NASA's Johnson Space Center, said that was likely not the case. Russian space junk had been expected to fall to Earth — but not until about 12 hours after the incident with the jet, Johnson said.