Bus driver in India wasn't killed by meteorite after all, NASA says

A meteorite did not killed a bus driver in India, NASA says

(Image credit: CNN/YouTube)

last updated 11 February 2016

Over the weekend, the Indian news media was abuzz over reports, picked up worldwide, that a bus driver at a college in southeast India had been killed Saturday by the impact from a meteorite, potentially making him the first known human killed by a meteorite. By Tuesday, the Indian Institute of Astrophysics was casting doubt on the claim. "Considering that there was no prediction of a meteorite shower and there was no meteorite shower observed, this certainly is a rare phenomena, if it is a meteorite," Prof. G.C. Anupama told The New York Times in a phone interview.

On Wednesday, NASA all but slammed the door on the meteorite-death theory, saying that from public statements and photographs of the crash, it appears that the driver was killed by a "land-based explosion," not the impact of a space rock. Although no confirmed deaths have resulted from chunks of meteors falling to Earth, several people have been injured by meteorites, including some 1,200 when a space rock crashed into Chelyabinsk, Russia; no fatalities were reported. Learn more about the near-record in the CNN video below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.