Chilean Jet Close To Being Brought Down By Meteor

(This report from the Sydney Morning Herald mislabels the space object as a meteorite when in actuality a space rock is a meteor until it reaches the earth's surface. Still, it's wild.)

It was a meteorite, not a satellite, says Russia

"A Chilean jetliner approaching New Zealand came within 20 seconds of being hit by blazing objects hurtling down to Earth, New Zealand aviation officials say.
US space officials said today it was most likely a close encounter with a disintegrating meteor, denying assertions from New Zealand officials that the LAN Chile plane narrowly missed being blasted by Russian space debris that was returning to Earth ahead of schedule.
While it is not uncommon for space junk to fall into the South Pacific, "it is very uncommon to have a plane in the middle of it," said Airways New Zealand spokesman Ken Mitchell.
(...)
The Lan Chile pilot flying from Santiago, Chile, notified air traffic controllers at Auckland after spotting the flaming objects just five nautical miles (9.2 kilometres) in front of and behind his Airbus 340.
That distance would not have given the pilots much room for manoeuvre, according to World Airliner magazine editor Tony Dickson. "You're talking about 20 seconds and that's not a lot" of separation, he told National Radio Thursday."