St. George • More than a week after the roof of a southern Utah home suffered extensive damage in the middle of the night, the cause remains up in the air – figuratively, and possibly, literally.
Ivins resident Robert Bolar, who lives in the Shadow Canyons subdivision west of St. George, characterized the mysterious damage as a “whatdunit,” as in “what in the world happened?”
“Everyone who sees the roof in person or photos is stumped,” said Bolar, a real estate agent who pegs the damage to be $15,000 or more.
Bolar said there was moisture around what appear to be impact points, and theorizes the wet spots might be due to ice falling from a plane passing overhead that night. After all, he added, such incidents have happened before.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident to see if an aircraft was involved, agency spokesperson Ian Gregor told The Tribune this week.
A not-so-beautiful noise
(Mark Eddington | The Salt Lake Tribune) Ivins resident Robert Bolar sits on a stack of roof tiles outside his home. The FAA is investigating what might have caused damage to his roof in the middle of the night on July 10.
Bolar said he and his wife, Suzanne, were sitting up in bed at 11:30 p.m. on July 10, when they heard a loud bang overhead.
“I came flying out of the master bedroom and raced out the back door to look around,” Bolar recalled. “I couldn’t hear or see anything unusual. Then I went out the front door, and it was perfectly still, just another peaceful Ivins night. I also looked in our two garages and found nothing.”
Bolar didn’t think much more about it until a neighbor texted him two days later and said there were broken tiles on the side of his home and his roof appeared to be damaged.
He was unprepared for the amount of damage he saw and perplexed by what could have caused it. Bolar said there are three or four possible impact points on the roof, with upended and broken tiles strewn across the roof and littering the ground.
Bolar thought that Ivins’ propensity for high winds might have been a factor. But roofing contractors told him that it would take tornado-force winds to cause that kind of damage to the tiles that weigh 11 pounds apiece and are mounted atop each other.
Sam Webber, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Salt Lake City office, said weather stations in Ivins and neighboring Santa Clara indicate there were no strong winds or microbursts on the day and time in question.
“There was nothing on radar at that time,” he added. “Usually, if there are microbursts, storms or even a light shower, there will be a signature on radar.”
Despite the lack of definitive answers, there is no shortage of speculation. Among the more interesting theories members of an Ivins community group have floated on Facebook is the damage was due to a meteorite, a hot air balloon, a “Superman crash landing,” or a family of raccoons living in the attic.
A likely culprit or false suspect?
(Robert Bolar) Ivins resident Robert Bolar said the FAA is investigating what might have caused damage to his roof in the middle of the night.
Bolar suspects the parts or ice falling from an aircraft flying overhead might be to blame. A self-professed technology geek, he explored that possibility by consulting the Flightradar24 app, which tracks air traffic in real time.
That search, he said, showed a Boeing 737 jetliner flying overhead around the same time he heard the bang to their roof. He said the aircraft was United Flight 1656 en route from Bozeman, Montana, to Los Angeles International Airport in California.
Alas, Bolar has been unable to find any debris in his or in neighboring yards, though he did spot a “strange white object” on the other side of his backyard fence.
“But by the time I noticed it and went to retrieve it,” he lamented, “it was gone.”
Using a drone, Bolar has also found what could be metal fragments on the roof, but no one will know for sure until someone can physically inspect the objects. The FAA has declared the roof off-limits until the investigation is concluded, according to Bolar.
United Airlines spokesperson Charles Hobart declined to weigh in on whether the United flight might be responsible, absent any proof that objects on the roof originated from an aircraft.
“Until then,” he said, “it’s really just speculation and we won’t have anything to share on the record.”
Aviation accident expert John Cox, CEO of Safety Operating Systems, said falling aircraft parts and ice happen on occasion. So called “blue ice,” he explained, can form when an aircraft’s lavatory leaks and frozen sewage accumulates on the underside of an aircraft. When the air temperatures rise, the ice often falls to earth.
In May 2024, for example, a basketball-sized chunk of ice fell from the sky and tore through an Eagle Mountain family’s shed, fatally injuring their goat. Investigators concluded the ice likely originated from an aircraft passing overhead.
“The problem is there is not likely to be much evidence unless you can find some blue fluid residue and chemical testing shows it came out of an aircraft lavatory,” Cox said. “But without some piece of solid evidence, metal or blue fluid, it is going to be hard to prove [the damage] came from an aircraft.”
Bolar is hoping the FAA will send an inspector to assess the damage. He wants to know if an aircraft caused and is liable for the damage before plunking down the $5,000 deductible to have his insurance company repair the roof.
(Mark Eddington | The Salt Lake Tribune) Ivins resident Robert Bolar said the FAA is investigating what might have caused damage to his roof in the middle of the night.
FAA investigators, he said, are asking for more photos and want him to inspect a vacant sagebrush-laden field across the street from his home. Until investigators can determine the cause, he added, the family and their roof remain in limbo.
Bolar worries thunderstorms might arrive before investigators can draw any conclusions. He and his family fret about storms dumping rain on their home and water soaking through their roof.
Aside from safeguarding his home from further damage, Bolar said he is looking for some answers.
“Even though the wind didn’t cause this,” he said, “the answers about what did are, as singer Bob Dylan put it, ‘blowin’ in the wind.’”
