The Register®

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/29/flying_bmw_crash/

Flying car totals Basingstoke house

Aerobatic BMW takes to the skies - briefly

By Lester Haines

Posted in Bootnotes, 29th April 2005 10:48 GMT

Requirements Checklist for Choosing a Cloud Backup and Recovery Service Provider

Two people have been hospitalised after a flying BMW inexplicably left the A30 in Basingstoke, Hants, and impacted with the first floor of a nearby house.

The incident - described by a neighbour as "just absolutely incredible" - left a gaping hole in a bedroom wall of Joe and Joyce Harman's house but, as the couple were asleep in another room at the time of the crash, they escaped unscathed.

Joyce Harman told the BBC [1]: "It was just horrendous. My husband thought the dog had knocked something over downstairs but as he got to the bedroom door he could see the hole in the wall and all the furniture moved. That's when we came downstairs and saw the car there."

Police are trying to work out exactly how the vehicle came to acquire aerobatic capabilities after the driver apparently lost control on a bend of the A30, hit the kerb and "launched through the air, colliding with the first floor of a house in Rainbow Close", as a Hampshire Police spokeswoman put it.

She confirmed that the two men hospitalised had been in the car at the time of the incident. One was found in the passenger seat and the other under the car's front wheels.

The Harmans have been told they will not be able to live in their battered house for at least two months and that it will have to be partially rebuilt. ®

Related stories

Dutch plan audacious flying tricycle [2]
Brit flying car earns its wings [3]
Brits roll out jam-busting airtaxi [4]
Briton invades France in amphibious car [5]
Flying car less likely than flying pig [6]
Flying car more economical than SUV [7]
Swiss set to unleash flying car [8]
Reader flak brings down flying car [9]
Wright Brothers' centenary provokes aviation speculationfest [10]
Indian flying car shot down - Israeli rival soars [11]
India to levitate flying car [12]
Flights of fantasy [13]
Skycar crashes and burns? [14]
So, where is my flying car? [15]
Where's my flying car? [16]