What Richard Yip-Chuck saw fall into a farmer's field Sunday evening [Mar 11]looked like a long, white ball with orange sparks shooting off the back.
The Holland Landing resident was driving along Hwy. 7 with his wife, Ele, and sons Kyle, 12, and 10-year-old Dylan, when they saw what looked like a fireball plummet to earth.
"There were sparks coming out of the back," Mr. Yip-Chuck said. "It was wild."
The bright flashes of light in the sky Sunday led to police switchboards in Toronto, York and Durham regions lighting up with people wondering what was happening.
People called saying they had seen a fireball in the sky between 8 and 8:30 p.m.
The Yip-Chucks, who were returning from hockey games in Lindsay where both sons play on the same team, saw the meteorite hit a farmers' field west of Lindsay, about an hour from Newmarket.
His younger son, Dylan, thought the fireball might have been a UFO, Mr. Yip-Chuck said.
"He was freaking out, saying, 'We've got to get off the road,'" he said. "But it was really cool, moving really fast. Whatever was coming off it was really bright."
The ball of light at first appeared to be a meteor, but also seemed too large for a falling rock, said Mr. Yip-Chuck's older son, Kyle.
The ball looked to be about the size of a car, said Kyle, who plays for the York Simcoe Express AAA hockey team.
The meteorite was probably about the size of a fist, given so many people in the GTA were able to see it, said Paul Delaney, a professor of physics and astronomy at York University.
(Original headline: Family sees meteorite hit ground )
