FIRE IN SKY LIKELY WAS METEORS

There was a fire in the sky Tuesday night, but whether it was a spectacular meteor shower or a plane with engine trouble was never determined.

Police officers and dispatchers from Scott City to Alexander County, Ill., received reports of a plane on fire descending toward the ground about 6:30 p.m. They spent the next two hours checking the sky and ground on a crisp, clear night trying to find out if a plane had gone down.

A major meteor shower might have been the cause of the scare, but officers didn't want to discount the reports right away. Astronomers report that a Leonid meteor shower could have been the best display of shooting stars for the next 100 years.

Area law enforcement agencies received dozens of calls about a possible plane on fire. Even the air tower at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport heard about the possible downed plane but reported seeing nothing in the sky, said Airport Manager Bruce Loy.

Knowing that there were meteor showers and that there were no tower reports from distressed planes points to a prank or hoax, he said. "It's difficult for me to believe."Loy said he had heard that messages had been left with Air Evac, St. Francis Medical Center's emergency helicopter service, about a distressed plane and that there were reports of cellular phone calls from the plane. "From everything I've heard it has to be a prank of some sort," said Loy.

But prank or not, "we have to take it seriously when you deal with a call like this," said Alexander County Sheriff Buddy Mitchell. "You have to with things like this. You can't take the chance."Scott City police didn't want to take any chances either. So when Officer Joey Hann reported seeing a ball of fire in the sky the city's fire and rescue squads called Cape Girardeau Fire Department for assistance.

Four fire trucks and two ambulances responded to the scene along Nash Road near the Scott City Port Authority at about 6:40 p.m. Officers searched fields and the nearby quarry for a downed plane.

Hann said he saw a trail of fire in the sky and thought it was a plane. Two other officers reported seeing the same thing. Police searched a five-mile area but found no evidence of a plane. After about 20 minutes they heard a scanner call confirming a crash site in Thebes, Ill.

Scott City officers kept in contact with a Life Beat helicopter crew who were helping in the search. Life Beat, which is Southeast Missouri Hospital's helicopter service, gave up its search at 7:50 p.m.

Thebes police officers, deputies from the Alexander County Sheriff's Department and Illinois State Police came up empty-handed in their search after a trek through fields and wooded areas in the county.

The closest thing they could find was a brush fire near the river, but even that didn't amount to much.

Police scanners and dispatchers from all across the state heard similar reports. Warren County and St. Charles County sheriff's departments went on similar searches Tuesday night in the St. Louis area.

Amateur stargazers know that the meteor shower viewing will be best in the early hours of Thursday. The sky should look like celestial fireworks.

Sharon Renshaw of Thebes, Ill., said she watches the sky and what she saw wasn't a star or meteor."It was a big flash," she said. "I watch the stars, and it looked like more than a meteor. It looked like it was falling and it was on fire."Two research aircraft operated by NASA and the U.S. Air Force will fly at 30,000 feet above clouds and urban smog across six nations to photograph the shower from the Comet Tempel-Tuttle. The jets began their flight Tuesday from Britain to Israel. The Associated Press contributed to this report.