NBC News space analyst James Oberg, who has delved into UFO mysteries for decades, weighed in on the latest buzz in an e-mail:
"Coincidences often create their own new reality, for sure. The BBC, which pointed out that the blade that broke off is lying right at the base of the tower (it isn't missing, as the Sun claimed), quoted an engineer who said such damage could be caused by ice flung off one turbine into another - and the weather was creating exactly such icing conditions.
"The big 'clunk' heard a few hours before the apparent failure (it's not sure at what time the failure actually occurred) could have been initial impact, followed by some amount of time of growing metal failure leading to catastrophic separation (and impact with the second blade). A pretty quick examination of impact streaks should be able to settle it.
"The UFO freak-out was more fun - as if alien spaceships navigate between the stars, asteroids and space debris, but can't avoid windmills. What kind of hypothesis is that?"
aliens drive drunk?
