WHAT on Earth happened to this wind turbine?

It broke.

The blade may be in a scrap yard, and some dotty lady said she saw lights just before it all happened (at 4.00am??).

Scenario; Alien beings travel millions of miles through space with technology we can only dream of, and crash into one of our wind turbines .. I don't think so.

Previous answers are basically right about wind turbines but are not right about the influence of our atmosphere on the rotation of the earth. And, is is often the case, things are more complicated than you might think. If you have ever paid attention to your clothes washing machine, the "tub" design rather the newer horizontal rotating machines. The amount of force required to get it to spin or to get it to stop spinning once it is spinning, is different if there is water sloshing around in it. The physics are similar for the earth. The kinetic energy of the rotating earth is lost over time due to a number of factors: the moon orbiting the earth, the electromagnetic "drag" of the solar wind due to our magnetic field, and the energy losses of water and air sloshing around on the surface of the earth. Admittedly, the amount of mass involved in our atmosphere is itsy bitsy compared to the rotational enertia of the planet. For other planets, like Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus (the Gas Giants), the mass of the atmosphere is a bigger deal. However, we know, quite accurately, that the earth's rotation is slowing down over time. We do not know exactly how fast the earth rotated in the past. We don't even know precisely why it rotates at all. It is logical to assume that big meteor impacts during earth's formation probably played some role. Back to wind turbines... Yes, the wind (the basic circulation of our atm) is driven by solar heating and evaporation of water. And it is generally random (although there are absolutely defined wind patterns which, if you pay attention, are changing as a result of climate change). But anyway... wind turbines extract energy from the circulation of our atm, energy that would have done different things if it had not been extracted. We know that large "wind farms" create wind "shadows" so, where you put up a new wind farm has consequences.

If it was a fracture in the material then the timing was perfect for it to fall off when local residents were seeing unusual lights in the sky at that time. It seems too much of a coincidence for that to happen so I remain optimistic about it until further tests have been implemented to find out the cause. After all, it's not like it's a common problem with these blades falling off suddenly and there are plenty of them across the country. If it is found to be suspicious then you can bet that we will hear no more about it.

To add to this though, I read earlier that the broken blade was lying at the base of the turbine pole and was being sent away for analysis.

What I find scary is that the professionals expect a turbine blade to snap off. 5-6 times a year somewhere on average.

Thats a lot of junk to come flying off and land somewhere. Any way tidal power is the better option. There is always tides, not always wind.

I'm more puzzled by the final sentence in the Telegraph article:

'The Ministry of Defence said that it did not investigate UFO sightings unless there was evidence of a potential threat to the UK'.

The craft often fly over The Wash to test their ability to manoeuvre so that if they crash , the debris can be desbribed as "a Tornado on a routine mission" or such like,and easily recovered from the sand/mud banks

The blade has NOT disappeared into thin air, it was found underneath the turbine....and the news I heard was 'a flying saucer clipped it, while showing off...kids ehh!'

I can vouch for the size of these things having seen them and made a deck to carry them by ship, they are huge and heavy.

Can't wait to see the outcome, as I have no idea what it could be, a real puzzler for once.....

I think this unexplainable.. or lightning hit it, would explain the lights.. and the noise.. either way, I have no idea!

but I want to know what did, if it was aliens, then there hiding something from us all, and if it was something else, then beh..

It truly is a freaky accident! Like you said where the hell has the blade gone!