'Burning pencil' falls in Sulawesi jungle

'Burning pencil' falls in Sulawesi jungle

Agencies, Jakarta/Rome

Villagers living in a remote part of Indonesia's Southeast
Sulawesi province reported on Tuesday seeing something like a
"burning pencil" falling from the sky, which officials believe to
be the first sightings of Italian satellite debris crashing to
earth.

Amiruddin, administrative officer of Muna district, 1,663
kilometers northeast of Jakarta, told the state-run Antara news
agency villagers of Marga Karya and Karya Bakti saw the pencil-
like flaming object crash loudly into a heavily forested area
last Friday.

Their reports of the satellite sighting were delayed by poor
communications linking the two remote villages to Muna.

Amiruddin said his office strongly suspected the unidentified
crashing object was debris from a satellite belonging to Italy's
National Aeronautics and Space Agency (LAPAN).

LAPAN reportedly issued a warning last month that debris from
their space satellite BeppoSAX would probably fall in Indonesian
territories along the equator in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi,
Maluku or Papua.

It also warned some of the satellite debris might be toxic,
and sightings should be reported to authorities.

BeppoSAX, weighing about 1.6 kilograms, was initially expected
to fall to earth on April 19, said Antara.

On Monday, Italy said it had alerted 39 countries to the risk
that a satellite it deactivated last year could crash in their
territory within the next 48 hours.

The 1,400 kg (3,100 lb) satellite was expected to fall to
earth between 1710 GMT on April 29 and 1403 GMT on April 30
(00:10 a.m. and 9:03 p.m. Wednesday Jakarta time) somewhere in a
band straddling the equator that would include Brazil, Colombia,
Indonesia, Malaysia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Italian Space Agency said it was keeping all 39 countries
up to date on the uncontrolled re-entry of the BeppoSAX
satellite, but there was a higher probability it would fall into
one of the oceans than on land.

The satellite should explode into about 140 pieces, with only
700 kg expected to remain solid and potentially posing a threat,
the agency said.

But it said it was impossible to assess in advance how much
damage might be caused.

"We have taken measures unprecedented in the world to prepare
ourselves and the countries concerned to this phenomenon,"
Vincenzo Spaziante, head of a special task force set up three
months ago, told a news conference in Rome.