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F-18 drops inert practice bomb while flying to Virginia Navy base
News Observer ^ | Oct 30, 2007 | AP

Posted on 10/30/2007 2:08:35 PM PDT by RDTF

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - The Navy said a small, inert training bomb fell Tuesday from an F/A-18C Hornet fighter jet that was heading to Oceana Naval Air Station. No one was hurt.

The Navy said in a statement that the bomb hit a wall adjacent to a warehouse in the resort city of Virginia Beach. Minimal damage was reported.

The aircraft was returning to Oceana following a training mission at the Navy's bombing range in Dare County, N.C., when it dropped the bomb. The jet landed safely at Oceana.

-snip-

(Excerpt) Read more at newsobserver.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: bdu48; f18; hornet; navair; oceananas; usn
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whoops
1 posted on 10/30/2007 2:08:37 PM PDT by RDTF
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To: paddles

ping


2 posted on 10/30/2007 2:08:52 PM PDT by RDTF ("Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear". Mark Twain)
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To: RDTF

Maybe we could accidentally drop a practice MOAB on Tehran? Not an inert one, though.


3 posted on 10/30/2007 2:11:28 PM PDT by Allegra (Greetings from a kinder, gentler Iraq. God bless US and Coalition Forces.)
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To: RDTF

If that was one of the little blue Mk-? practice bombs with the smoke cartridge, it would cause some serious damage to anything it hit. Big chunk of iron makes up the nose.


4 posted on 10/30/2007 2:12:47 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: Allegra
MOAB?

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

5 posted on 10/30/2007 2:14:21 PM PDT by b4its2late (~ This Tagline Intentionally Left Blank ~)
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To: doorgunner69

It hit a wall with minimal damage unless you count the hole through the cinderblocks.


6 posted on 10/30/2007 2:14:41 PM PDT by RightWhale (anti-razors are pro-life)
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To: RDTF

I heard Buzz Aldrin on C2CAM about a year ago. He was asked about the broken circuit breaker when on the Moon...and he brought up that when flying combat aircraft over the US, you flip the breakers on the gun and other ordnance, just in case, until you get to the target range.


7 posted on 10/30/2007 2:17:43 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: RightWhale
From another source:

"A 10-pound, inert practice bomb fell from an F/A-18C Hornet fighter jet and hit a wall outside a warehouse in this resort city as the aircraft was approaching Oceana Naval Air Station on Tuesday"

"The bomb was a BDU-48, which carries an explosive charge that emits smoke upon impact"

I'd rather not get my car or noggin whacked by 10 lbs of iron flying at me at speed! Ouch..........

8 posted on 10/30/2007 2:21:48 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: RDTF
My hometown of Florence, SC had an atomic bomb dropped on it in the 1950's.

Link has another link to newsreel.

9 posted on 10/30/2007 2:22:40 PM PDT by N. Theknow (Kennedys: Can't drive, can't fly, can't ski, can't skipper a boat; but they know what's best for us)
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To: magslinger

Ping


10 posted on 10/30/2007 2:23:17 PM PDT by neodad (USS Vincennes (CG-49) Freedom's Fortress)
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To: RDTF

Well, that would explain the loud thud I heard yesterday.


11 posted on 10/30/2007 2:25:47 PM PDT by MacDorcha (We have been at war with this mindset since before the Socratic method was borne.)
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To: doorgunner69

Seeing what my ten pound sledge hammer can do to cinderblock, I can imagine the same weight moving ten times faster leaving a cloud of cinderblock dust. Anybody in the vicinity could get significant damage to his hide from flying fragments. Somebody is in trouble, either the pilot or the ground crew unless the release mechanism is shown to be faulty.


12 posted on 10/30/2007 2:27:17 PM PDT by RightWhale (anti-razors are pro-life)
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To: RDTF

Bush’s fault.


13 posted on 10/30/2007 2:31:30 PM PDT by garyhope (It's World War IV, right here, right now, courtesy of Islam.)
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To: RightWhale
Somebody is in trouble, either the pilot or the ground crew unless the release mechanism is shown to be faulty.

I'm a navy ordnanceman and my money says that everything worked perfectly as advertised. I'd bet my next paycheck it was pilot error.

14 posted on 10/30/2007 2:33:21 PM PDT by Drew68
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To: RightWhale
I was thinking of the older (like me) Mk-76:

"The Mk 76 Mod 5 is a 25-pound, solid, metal-cast, practice bomb. Its body is teardrop shaped and centrally bored to permit the insertion of a practice bomb signal cartridge."

It is a low drag design, the BDU-48 is a lighter high drag design. The old Mk-76 would make a decent kinetic kill weapon if flying fast enough when dropped..................

15 posted on 10/30/2007 2:35:02 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: Vroomfondel; SC Swamp Fox; Fred Hayek; NY Attitude; P3_Acoustic; Bean Counter; investigateworld; ...
SONOBUOY PING!

Returning to base? I wonder if he tried to release it during the exercise? We brought an A-6 aboard carrying a couple of 250's he couldn't get rid of.

Of course they released when he caught the wire. They didn't arm before they hit the water.

Thank God for angle decks!

Click on pic for past Navair pings.

Post or FReepmail me if you wish to be enlisted in or discharged from the Navair Pinglist.
This is a medium to low volume pinglist.

16 posted on 10/30/2007 2:39:28 PM PDT by magslinger (I will not submit.)
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To: RDTF; rlmorel

I looked in my back yard and there are 7 bamboos down, but no bomb, inert or ert.


17 posted on 10/30/2007 2:43:30 PM PDT by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll. <br> "What happens if neutrinos have mass?")
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To: Drew68

You’re most probably right: pilot probably made an error. Nevertheless, it’s possible it was some type of mechanical failure.

In any case, the reason we use dummy bombs during non-combat missions is that errors can and occasionally do occur, and it is my opinion that this is a simple situation that points out why we bother to expend time and money on training and test equipment rather than just go dumb and happy with little training and no special training ordinance.


18 posted on 10/30/2007 2:43:38 PM PDT by AFPhys ((.Praying for President Bush, our troops, their families, and all my American neighbors..))
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To: Drew68

I’d bet the same way, but see my #16.


19 posted on 10/30/2007 2:47:55 PM PDT by magslinger (I will not submit.)
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To: RDTF

at least it wasn’t the B-52 carrying nuclear armed ALCM’s :)


20 posted on 10/30/2007 2:52:32 PM PDT by Republican Party Reptile
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