Splat! Mystery gunk strikes again

NZ Herald Graphic

Another South Auckland resident has told of a mystery brown substance splattering her house and her, bringing to seven the number of incidents the Herald has learned about.

Marilyn Read said incidents in Karaka, where she lives, had a striking similarity to her own experience in late September.

The Herald reported that Drury residents Andrew Burns and John Thompson had two and three cases respectively where they, their families or the property had been hit by a foul-smelling substance. Another man from Karaka has also told of his house being hit by a similar substance.

Mr Burns had tests carried out by ESR which showed that on two occasions the substance was human faecal matter.

The men believe the substance comes from passing planes, but say they have been fobbed off by the Civil Aviation Authority, which maintains the substance is duck excrement and that there is no proof it came from a plane.

Mrs Read said she was outside her Te Hihi home gardening about 4.30pm when she was covered in what she believes was human faeces.

"Then there was a great big whoosh sound. I got covered. My whole back and my hair and the ground and the side of the house got covered in this gunk and it just smelled terrible.

"It was more revolting than anything I had smelled before. It was just terrible."

Mrs Read said she never reported the matter and, although she had no proof, did not believe the CAA when it said it believed the substance came from ducks.

"It is not ducks because I looked up and there wasn't a bird around. You know if a duck's gone by or a bird or something, you can see it right there, it's fairly close ... and you don't get a great splatter like I got. It was spread across the side of our house."

Mr Burns, who first spoke out, prompting more victims to come forward, remains upset about not being able to obtain flight information around the time of the second incident at his home on September 5 lastyear.

After a long fight for the same information after the first incident in 2007, he was eventually told the CAA no longer had the data he needed.

Despite repeated correspondence with the CAA and Airways NZ since September, Mr Burns has again failed to get answers and he believes the authority, having taken months to respond to him without answering his questions, will again say it no longer has the information.

The CAA has said the substance is from a duck or bird and say the incidents are not an aviation matter because they t do not affect aircraft safety.