9-11-2001 - Anti Radar Chaff?

Factual Questions
1

My sister asked me to ask: it’s September 11, 2001, and the World Trade Center has fallen. The nation’s airlines are grounded. No passenger jets are in the air.

And she, in the back part of San Diego County – say, 20 miles north-east of San Diego – sees tinfoil strips falling through the air. About an inch wide, ten inches long, and hundreds of them. A football field’s worth of them, drifting slowly downward.

I have no idea what this might have been. It sounds like WWII “Window” – anti-radar tinfoil chaff. Could some jet fighter have released it, mistakenly thinking there was a need for it? Could it be totally unrelated? Could it just have been some kind of industrial scrap caught by the wind? Could my sister be misremembering the whole thing? Why wait until now to ask?

What might she have seen?

2

Sounds exactly like chaff, and I’d bet on an accidental release on a chaotic day.

3

The invading aliens from Alpha Centauri III didn’t get the no-fly memo?

ETA: Yeah, why ask NOW? Ask your sister that, and let us know! :slight_smile:

4

She said it was just one of those things you wonder about for years and years, and finally get around to asking someone. I may have bragged too much about how the collective knowledge of the SDMB can solve any mystery!

Amateur Barbarian: Well, of all the things a pilot might accidentally release, that’s about the best possible choice. The area is reasonably close to MCAS Miramar, so it’s not unusual to see fighter jets overhead. Also helicopters.