Posted on 03/20/2020 7:08:53 AM PDT by Lazamataz
The F-16, hit by the cannon fire, caught fire and exploded having recently been refuelled and made ready for a training sortie due to take place later that day. Another aircraft received minor damage.
If anyone ever needed a reminder of the lethal dangers of working with live munitions, then a recent incident at Florennes Air Base in Belgium is the ultimate wake-up call.
It is thought a maintenance worker accidentally activated the six-barrel 20mm Vulcan M61A-1 cannon hitting another plane parked on the runway.
No-one was in the line of fire, but two technicians were taken to the medical centre on the base suffering from noise related effects
(Excerpt) Read more at warhistoryonline.com ...
Love Fawlty Towers...
LOL!!
When at RAF Bentwaters back in the mind-80’s, a weapons troop was working on a gun jam (30 mm), using some sort of tool to pull back the firing pin when he lost his grip and the firing pin snapped forward and hit the shell casing dead center and - BLAM - the bullet fired and skipped off the ground about 76 feet in front of the jet and then hit the reinforced hinged part of the Security line shack door just as a Security troop was coming out the door. LOTS OF CONFUSION, lots of yelling about a sniper using a 30mm rifle (yeah, right). Eventually the base came off of the lockdown and the weapons troop was found to be using an unauthorized tool.
Similar incident on USS NIMITZ in 1988 - I’d just left the bridge.
https://apnews.com/0bc41a793bc13a49542ea31318e6e205
And folks wonder why those wounded in combat by enemy fire throw theirs in the sock drawer and forget it. The purple durple ceased being a combat wounded award long ago, like when John Kerry (who also served in Vietnam) had to get rice grains dug out of his ass from his carelessness with a thumper.
Post 82, please.
Yeah, the 20mm pop-gun is cute (said the former A-10 fighter pilot).
;-)
4 more and he'll be an ace.
.308 FMJ through the fleshy Part? Depends on the angle, how he was lying. Etc
Ha ha.
Worst embedded advertising ever. When I loaded the page it had an ad for "Fire & Smoke Restoration, Odor Control, Upholstery & Fabric Cleaning. Immediate Response." Don't think a little Febreeze will freshen up the F-16.
Interesting. Weapons guys have told me that it is SOP to move aircraft to a secure area built contain an accidental discharge.
My dad got sent back to the states from Bougainville (marine WW2). He got filariasis. Guess he could say he was stabbed by a mosquito.
That is the practice but apparently this guy was working on it alone - violation - and was using a quick-fix tool, and the jet was pointed the right direction. The round hit the shack on the other side of the base. When it happened they found out the backstop and the wall of steel and dirt in front had eroded. All it takes is a small gap and it’s off to the races. We were all briefed if he used the correct tool he would not have shifted the nose of the jet and the safety wall would have worked.
Hmmmmn. For either photo, where did the “rest of the bullets” go? (F-16 fuselage or engine isn’t going to stop the “missing” 20 mm cannon shells. )
It’s gonna be tough to live that one down...
Thanks.
These embedders are getting very aggressive and sneaky.
I thought they had a squat switch that prevents them from firing when on the ground.
That might explain a story I was told years ago of the on-base response at Wheelus Field, Libya after the 1970 coup that put Khadaffi in power. There were two gates into the base, and at each one they supposedly had parked an F-100, jacked up, with its 20mm guns pointed at the gate. I didn’t understand the “jacked up” part before now.
Since the cannon is electrically fired, there is a wire and plug to disconnect and cover, AS WELL AS HAVING THE AIRCRAFT GROUNDED OUT WITH A STATIC GROUND WIRE, TOO!!!!Not the first this happened, F4E not grounded-static charge fired off, swiss cheesed a maintenance van!
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