NC airport studying mysterious `goop’ in garage

MORRISVILLE, N.C. — A North Carolina airport has hired engineers to find out what causes a strange white goop to drip on some cars in a parking garage.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Tuesday that Raleigh-Durham International Airport has paid more than $24,000 to settle claims filed by car owners since the garage opened in 2003.

Officials say the problem strikes only a few of the nearly two million cars that park there yearly.

Airport officials say the problem happens a few days a year and can’t be predicted.

One car owner whose vehicle was spattered two years ago says it looked like hundreds of birds had roosted above his car. The goop corroded paint and window coatings.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)