A 14ft blue rocket broke up in flight and crash landed in twodifferent parishes near Wedmore.
A group of enthusiastic rocketeers fired from Cheddar Moor onSunday morning. However, a number of things went wrong with thedevice and the rear half ploughed into Martin Corkish's garden inClewer and the front parachuted into a Cocklake field.
Mr Corkish, 36, said: "I was working in the house on an extensionat 11am and heard whistling for a few seconds. Then there was amassive thump."
He believes the fin section was doing more than 100mph when ithit - hard enough to bury 4ft of itself in his garden.
He drove off in the direction it came from and found the firingrig a mile away at Canal Drove before telling the rocketeers it hadmissed his house, with his wife and two young children inside, by12ft.
Two miles from the launch site in Cocklake, the front half of therocket, with parachute, sailed down onto a farm.
Its plummet was seen by Wendy Major and son Chris but wasforgotten about until 3pm when it was time to get the cows in.
Chris, 16, a Cannington College agriculture student, said: "Whenwe got closer, we got worried because the rocket was beeping - Ithought it was a bomb and got away from it as quickly as possible."
The police responded and worked out the beeping was a radiotransmitter. The Civil Aviation Authority said the only aircraftpassing was a DC10 and the only thing it jettisoned was fuel overthe Atlantic.
A flight plan had been lodged for the rocket launch a month inadvance by the rocketeers, who also sought advice from air trafficcontrol and Mendip Gliding Club about local conditions.
However, even wind socks didn't predict freak winds that spun therocket 180 degrees the wrong way.
The team, which travels around the country in search of suitablelaunch sites, contacted the police to notify them of the astrayrocket.
Richard Brown, a spokesman for the group, said: "No-one couldpredict it.
"Both computers in each end of the rocket failed along with theparachute control.
"We are serious people doing a very technical hobby in aresponsible way. Unfortunately an accident happened but no-one wasinjured.
"It would be no different if a hot air balloon came down insomeone's garden."
He said things like this were rare and believed no-one had beenhit by a falling rocket. The group will not fire any more rocketsfrom the location.
The incident was a new one for PC Pete Wills. He said it was oneof those things that had gone horribly wrong and he had been intouch with the Health and Safety Executive, aviation authority,traffic control and the United Kingdom Rocketry Association.
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