Woodbridge News of the Weird: Part Found in Yard

While Woodbridge residents may often hear cries of “The sky is falling!” at board of finance meetings during budget season, they’ve seldom had reason to take it literally, despite the recent scare that a satellite was breaking up and heading for Planet Earth.

So, when a Woodbridge resident found a plane propeller in his yard a few days ago, one couldn’t blame him if he momentarily believed it had come from a satellite (momentarily, as we all know satellites don’t have propellers . . . anymore) or that budget season had commenced a few months early.

According to Woodbridge Police Detective Bob Crowther, the department received a call several days ago from a Northrop Road resident explaining they had found what appeared to be a plane propeller in their back yard.

The police drove out to the property, took a look, and agreed – it did look like a plane propeller. But from where? (If this were a movie, it’s where they would shoot the scene from above, capturing the faces of the Woodbridge PD staring up at the sky in wonderment.)

The police contacted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) who also came out and took a peek and agreed that yes, it was indeed an airplane propeller.

This is where it actually gets interesting, if we hadn’t yet caught your attention; the FAA said that last week they had been contacted by Tweed International Airport who reported that a plane had lost a propeller while flying over Woodbridge. Seriously. The plane made it back to Tweed intact. Even more seriously.

The moral of this story is two-fold: before you take off in your private plane, take a moment to tighten the nut that holds the propeller on. And second, if you live in Woodbridge during budget season or otherwise, you may want to spend more time looking up . . . and being prepared to dodge what you may see on its way down . . . whether it be satellite parts, airplane parts or budgetary line items . . .