Star Metro - Near miss: Indonesia probes crash of suspected Chinese rocket fragment

The debris was found on Monday morning by a plantation worker in Indonesian Borneo, after residents reported hearing a loud bang the previous evening over a remote area of Central Kalimantan province.

"It was just there. At first, I thought it might have been aircraft debris," Wardi Tamroni told AFP of his discovery near the town of Sampit.

Wardi, 51, said the object had crashed about three kilometres (1.9 miles) from the housing complex of the PT Agro Bukit palm oil company he works for.

"We usually carry out our activities in the area where the object fell," he added.

"Fortunately, all the workers had already gone home, so no one was left in the plantation."

Local police chief I Kadek Dwi Yoga Sidhimantra described the object as "a fairly large aluminium plate measuring up to nine metres (30 feet) with an irregular shape and visible burn marks".

The incident did not cause loss of life or property damage, according to civil aviation spokesman Zachrudien, who like many Indonesians has one name.

The debris also posed no radiation or toxicity risks, he added.

Indonesia's National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) said the debris appeared to come from a Chinese Zhuque-2E rocket.

The Chinese government said last week that a Zhuque-2E had launched 10 satellites into space from a commercial launch site in the country's northwest.

The China National Space Administration could not be immediately reached for comment.

BRIN researcher Thomas Djamaluddin said not all parts of a spacecraft necessarily burn up on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, and more heat-resistant parts may reach the surface.

"This phenomenon is one possible explanation for the discovery of a large metal fragment in a palm oil plantation in Sampit," he said in a statement.

Debris usually crashes into the oceans which cover about 70 percent of Earth's surface.

- 'Leave it to fate' -

On Tuesday morning, a second piece of debris thought to be from the same rocket was found about one kilometre from the first, according to Zachrudien.

"We plan to inspect it. From the photographs, the object appears to be round and related to the first object," he told AFP.

"Its material also appears to be an aluminium alloy, but we will need to verify this."

The pieces were being examined at a nearby military airbase.

According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the casualty risk to individuals on Earth due to uncontrolled re-entry was lower than that for rare accidents such as lightning strikes or shark attacks -- though it is rising.

"Although the re-entry risks are still relatively small, they have grown considerably from 2019 to 2024, mainly due to increased space activities," the ESA Space Debris Office said in a report last year.

"If we had to anticipate something like this happening every day, we wouldn't be able to do our jobs," Wardi, the plantation worker, said of the freak event.

"We have to leave it to fate. What else can we do?"

F.T. Michaud--SMC