An airliner jet traveling from Chili to New Zealand early today were in for an interesting ride. [a href="vny!://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=145&ContentID=24657"]Flaming space debris[/a] — the remains of a Russian satellite — came hurtling back to Earth not far from a commercial jet on its way to Auckland, New Zealand.
Here's further justification for the growing concern of the [a href="vny!://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/01/0119_060119_space_junk.html"]increasing amounts of space garbage[/a] orbiting our planet.
From the article: 'The pilot of a Lan Chile Airbus A340 ... notified air traffic controllers at Auckland Oceanic Centre after seeing flaming space junk hurtling across the sky just five nautical miles in front of and behind his plane...'"