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A fireball observed over the UK in the early hours of October 6 was witnessed by many hundreds of people. Witnesses included the Gatwick control tower and the Sussex Police and Coastguard received many calls from members of the public. The Near Earth Objects Information Centre has received many eye-witness accounts from the Midlands to the Southeast which describe a bright white to bluish fireball that moving rapidly across the sky from the NE to SW at around 5.50 GMT.
Observers in Brighton described how the fireball appeared to fall in the sea. Fireballs are, however, frequently described to have fallen since they appear to have hit the ground when they are actually disappearing over the horizon. The glowing phenomena of a fireball due to heating of the atmosphere surrounding a meteoroid as it passes through the atmosphere at many kilometres per second. Unless the meteoroid is very large the fireball only occurs at altitudes over 40 km. Because the meteoroid travels at supersonic speeds, fireballs are associated with sonic booms. No audible effects were described by any eye witnesses for the Oct 6 fireball and it was, therefore, probably too high.
The Near Earth Objects Information Centre has also received one report of a fireball sighting over Edinburgh. Mr John Russell provided a detailed account of a bright white to blue fireball that was travelling from NW to SE at an apparent angle of 45 degrees which appear to detonate at the end of its trajectory at 2.07 am Oct 6. Although fireballs could pass over the entirety of the UK the different direction and more importantly large difference in time suggests that this was a separate meteoroid.
Around 30 to 80 meteorites are thought to fall in the UK each year and all of these will be associated with fireballs. There will also be many fireballs that can be seen from the ground in which the meteoroid completely burns up and does not fall as a meteorite. It is not, therefore, impossible that two unrelated fireballs could be observed on the same day. The reason that most fireballs go unnoticed is that they occur at high altitude and can be completely obscured by cloud cover. The fall of meteorites usually causes no damage since they are generally small stones.
More info: Report your eye witness account
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