Nice Shot

[bignick]

From a news story here:

A National Guard F-16 fighter plane mistakenly fired off 25 rounds of ammunition at the Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School in South New Jersey on Wednesday night.

[size=-1]
The pilot was meant to fire the rounds some 3 1/2 miles away at a military target range, Lt. Col. Roberta Niedt of the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs told reporters in the Jersey shore township's police headquarters.

No one was injured as school was out and a lone custodian was inside the building when the bullets hit.

Damage was minimal as the non-exploding, 20 millimeter bullets left only puncture marks in the school's roof and the asphalt outside the building.

The fighter jet was part of the 113th Wing, District of Columbia Air National Guard assigned to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

An investigation is being conducted into how the pilot mistook the school, located on Frog Pond Road, for a target range.[/size]

Thankfully no one got hurt...

just imagine if that would have been a school day..

or if they were doing bombing practice instead...

 

[Chronuss]

...I saw that on the news this morning...I wanna know what he was actually shooting at..

 

[Tgace]

Happens...I recall somebody on a US highway getting killed by an errant artillery round from a nearby Army range a few years ago. While fortunately extremely rare, statistically, things like this are bound to happen every once and a while. Not that that means that investigations, discipline, court martial, punishment etc. shouldnt happen if warranted. Thank goodness nobody was hurt.

 

[Chronuss]

thankfully it happened in the wee hours of the AM...and I believe the news report said there was one custodian in the building at the time and received no injuries.

 

[gmunoz]

We have the greatest technology available to us in the world and a pilot makes a mistake like that? I saw that last night on the news. Ridiculous...

 

[Tgace]

Technology will never eliminate human error.....

 

[gmunoz]

Technology will never eliminate human error.....

Understandably so, but how does anyone mistake a school for his original target? Of course, it's easy for me to say since I've never and never will be in his shoes. Just weird that's all.

 

[Flatlander]

I was going to post this. Good grab, Nick. :asian:

 

[bignick]

i do what i can...

Like Tgace said...human error...I believe he was flying around 7,000 feet...and the target was about three miles away....at that altitude...it is somewhat understandable that you could mistake a target...but there still needs to be an investigation and proper punishment....

"Everybody makes mistakes" is not a valid excuse for something like this...even if everybody does

 

[gmunoz]

It'll be interesting to see what punishment is given. Should he be made an example of so as to not cause an uproar or is a simple slap on the hand sufficient?

 

[Tgace]

His military career will be crippled enough w/o criminal charges. Things like this follow an officer around. As nobody was injured I wouldnt hang the guy. A full investigation should be done though to see if this guy should ever fly again.

 

[Gary Crawford]

That reminds me about a story I read in a base newspaper while tdy in Alaska.Seems this Lt.Col.,F-4 squadron comander was on his last sorte before his retirement.He was target practicing with sparrow missles at a remote target range.On the way back,he noticed a Moose standing on a ridge.Having one sparrow left,he couldn't resist.He turned around,targeted and fired the missle at the Moose,direct hit.He then returned to his base for the traditional dousing by water fire extinguishers and susquint retirement party put on by his sqaudron.Just after the "roast" got under way,MP's showed up and arrested him.Somebody was hunting that peticular Moose(fifty miles from the nearest town) and witnised it's destruction.He got 15 days correctional custudy,loss of commision and retirement benifits.

 

[bignick]

oh man...that's a little rough, in my opinion...but then again...i'm sure the moose didn't appreciate it

 

[Rich Parsons]

Technology will never eliminate human error.....

This is true. The first live fire testing of the M1A1 had some issues, becuase the "Gunner" did not follow directions for the new system. After the first shot, he followed the point and click and allowed for the system to do its' work.

 

[bignick]

as a followup...i read that the guns had just gone off, accidentally....

have to wait and see how this goes