Ufo

[gingerjedi]

The wrong blade is broken off if that was the case.

Ok foget what I said... it must have been little green men in flying saucers.

[Mich the Tester]

Perhaps boring and testerish, but the energy company could start their investigations a little closer to home.

Step one Investigate possible internal causes not involving intergalactic invasion forces;
Material weakness in one blade which fell off and hit the other
Material fatigue perhaps worsened by an internal cause like a wobbly or worn bearing
Blade exposed to extreme cold beyond normal or specified limits
Design flaw

Once lots of internal causes are ruled out, then maybe external accidental causes like aircraft collisions could be investigated.

Then you get to external deliberate causes, like terrorism or vandalism.

Having ruled that out you go back to step one and see if you’ve missed something.

Then you go to really far-fetched stuff like Russian aircraft attack.

UFOs aren’t really the place to start when investigating failures.

[OwlHoot]

Could it have been a jabberwocky? They're pretty big.

The Guardian article on the incident reckoned it could have been a cow. Sounds really plausible - must have been trying to jump over the Moon and the windmill was in the way.

Although I suppose a cow could be lifted off the ground by a mini-tornado (triggered somehow by the windmill itself?) wxman is probably bombing up the M11 as we speak.

[Purple Dalek]

And the blade is not bent in the right direction. The bend is towards the direction of motion

Well, 1st blade falls off because it wasn't bolted on correctly, the emergency brakes slam on to stop the thing falling completely to pieces (or vica versa), a remaining blade breaks and comes to rest with the broken blade pointing in the direction of travel because of momentum taking it there.

Lots of bangs and showers of sparks during the episode. If anyone had watched it, and it was dark enough, the blades will have glowed blue too.

[wobbegong]

Birdstrike.

[Mich the Tester]

Well, 1st blade falls off because it wasn't bolted on correctly, the emergency brakes slam on to stop the thing falling completely to pieces (or vica versa), a remaining blade breaks and comes to rest with the broken blade pointing in the direction of travel because of momentum taking it there.

Lots of bangs and showers of sparks during the episode. If anyone had watched it, and it was dark enough, the blades will have glowed blue too.

This is indeed a bit more plausible than the intergalactic stuff.

[TimberWolf]

Well, 1st blade falls off because it wasn't bolted on correctly, the emergency brakes slam on to stop the thing falling completely to pieces (or vica versa), a remaining blade breaks and comes to rest with the broken blade pointing in the direction of travel because of momentum taking it there.

Lots of bangs and showers of sparks during the episode. If anyone had watched it, and it was dark enough, the blades will have glowed blue too.

The bangs and lights have already been identified as a firework display going on nearby.

[Purple Dalek]

The bangs and lights have already been identified as a firework display going on nearby.

So the spacemen were distracted by the pyrotechnics and their path inadvertently took them into a windmill.

[b0redom]

UFOs aren’t really the place to start when investigating failures.

Shhh... That's been my excuse for failures at ClientCo for months.....

[TimberWolf]

So the spacemen were distracted by the pyrotechnics and their path inadvertently took them into a windmill.

Either that or the people claiming to be holding a fireworks display are secret agents that have been monitoring and have been in communication with the dozy aliens for years. They also have a dead one that was obtained from another windmill collision.