Was it a fireball? A meteor? Search is on for crash site of flaming object in SC
First responders in multiple southeast U.S. states are searching for the crash site of a fiery object that was seen barreling toward the ground Thursday afternoon.
Videos of a fireball streaking through the sky were posted online from people in North Carolina and South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia.
The American Meteor Society, which tracks reports of fireball sightings, logged multiple calls from those states on Thursday as well.
Fox Carolina reported the Anderson County Fire Dispatch in South Carolina confirmed it was searching for the crash site upstate Thursday. A video circulating online from someone in the state showed what appeared to be a streaking ball of fire as it raced towards the ground, disappearing behind a treeline.
The National Weather Service in Charleston posted on social media that satellite-based lightning detection showed “a streak within cloud free sky” near Gasburg, Virginia, which is along the border with North Carolina near Lake Gaston. NWS said it was detected between 11:51 a.m. and 11:56 a.m.
Many have taken to social media to guess what the object may have been. A common guess has been it was a meteor.
In Georgia, 11 Alive said Henry County Emergency Management reported a piece of meteorite fell through someone’s roof, creating a hole about an inch in diameter.
Mike Hankey, the operations manager at the American Meteor Society, said in an interview with Axios it may have been a “daytime fireball” from a meteor passing over the region. That fireball was also likely responsible for the sonic boom heard in the Atlanta area, he said.
“This is usually indicative of a meteorite dropping a fireball, but not always,” Hankey said in the interview.
In the end, “the fireball exploded 27 miles above West Forest, Georgia, unleashing an energy of about 20 tons of TNT,” CBS News reported.
This story was originally published June 26, 2025 at 5:16 PM.
