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NBC Philadelphia just made a big boner.

This morning, reports surfaced that a tire went through the roof of a building alongside the Schuylkill Expressway in Grays Ferry. There was a serious accident nearby, and the hole was the result of truck tire that flew (quite literally) off the road and crashed into the roof of a public housing building.

But that’s not the conclusion local news outlets briefly jumped to. Their version? AIRPLANE TIRE FALLS FROM SKY.

Apparently, an eyewitness and a call from “Fire Radio” hinted that the tire may have been from an airplane. FOX briefly went with that version on their website, but covered themselves by citing said witness.

NBC had no time for such caution. Hell, they even managed to confirm something that didn’t happen (!!!).

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I guess they were able to rule out Wayward Shell From Rainbow Road.

They went full-bore with their live coverage, complete with this series of shameful headlines, banners and words:

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Screen Shot 2012-10-22 at 11.36.29 AM
Screen Shot 2012-10-22 at 11.36.29 AM

Their live coverage consisted of 30 minutes of conjecture about how a tire could fall off an airplane, how an airplane over Philly may suffer a grim fate, the irony of the building and hole being right near a major car accident, and other general OH MY GOD AIRPLANE TIRES ARE FALLING FROM OUR SKIES sensationalism.

When the folks from NBC learned that the tire came from a truck involved in the nearby accident, not an airplane (as first reported by 6 ABC), they spent the next 10 minutes trying to figure out how a truck tire could become airborne, which, if you’ve ever seen something like that first-hand (unfortunately, I have), isn’t all that hard to comprehend. It turns out, an object moving at 60 mph that gets slingshotted off an axel can take on a life of its own. Wild, I know.

Next up: your local weather. NBC is reporting mild temperatures with a chance of Jesus tears this weekend. ABC and CBS are saying we can just expect a little rain. Either way, you'll need an umbrella.