Note the reference to what we now call 'electrophonic sound' from the fireball -- the centuries-old detail that witnesses kept hearing and scientists kept pooh-poohing -- until scientists caught up with reality.

In the early 1980's I and a small team realized that space shuttle entries created predictable large fireballs that were also eliciting witness reports of simo hissing noises with overhead passage. Working with Colin Keay, we instrumented a pickup truck, parked it in houston when shuttle reentry overflights were expected, and listened at predicted frequencies for the plasma-trail-induced radio noise -- with suggestive but inconclusive results.

Later, Keay came across accidental radio spectrum recordings during other bright fireballs and found the smoking signal that explained the old, old mystery.

Shhhh!!!