TONGE: "MIND YOUR HEAD"

12.00.00am GMT Tue 14th Jan 2003

Dr Jenny Tonge, MP for Richmond Park, has reacted with astonishment to information from the Civil Aviation Authority detailing over 40 incidents of objects falling from aircraft during the past six months.

The MP said: "It really does make your hair stand on end! There were"three red-hot pieces of metal falling into garden"; "section of cockpit door departed in flight"; "fire extinguisher fell from aircraft"; and any number of "blue ice" (and we all know what that is!) falls."

"It has to be said that these 40 incidents are for the country as a whole, but it still makes you think. I am indebted to Sir Roy McNulty, the CAA Chairman, for this information.

I know we are particularly vulnerable here in Richmond, living as we do under the Heathrow Flight Path, but I had no idea there were quite so many incidents.

"Just one of those ice-falls made a three foot hole in a garage roof. It amazes me there have been no reported casualties."