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The pilot of the single-seat jet was supposed to fire at a target on the ground three and half miles away from school on the Warren Grove firing range, Webster said. The military firing range covers parts of Little Egg Harbor, Bass River and Woodland townships in the southern part of the state. "We don't know what happened that caused the gun to fire," Webster said. The plane was 7,000 feet in the air when the shots were fired. The gun, an M61-A1 Vulcan cannon, is located in the plane's left wing. "The National Guard takes this situation very seriously," said Lt. Col. Roberta Niedt, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. "The safety of our people and the surrounding communities are our foremost concern."

I'm a grunt, not a pilot, but 7000 feet and 3 1/2 miles from the range does NOT sound like the typical strafing profile. Is there any possibility the gun misfired? I don't know *anything* about F16s, but is it possible that an electrical malfunction caused the gun to fire? It's interesting that the spokesperson said they didn't know what caused the gun to fire, not that they didn't know why the pilot fired the gun.

3000 pounds per minute = 50 rounds per sec. max.

for 1/2 sec the knee board hits the trigger. 25 rounds fire.

For 20 minutes until he is back on the ground the pilot considers his options....

This man is toast. First, it appears that the MasterArm switch was on, or he could not have fired the gun, even by accident. If it was kicked on while he climbed in the jet, then he failed to perform his basic checklist before getting in the air. Once the MasterArm is on, it is very easy in the F-16 to squeeze the trigger by accident. The profile suggests a nose-up attitude for the aircraft for the rounds to travel the 3.5 miles. If the maneuver was a high-G pull, he might have squeezed off the rounds in pulling back on the stick and having his hand slip a bit.

Anyway, this guy is a goner. Say goodbye flyboy.

I am (former) a fighter pilot that flew the A-10. Strafing profiles for the pop-gun 20mm is a 2,000' slant range for the shot. And for low angle strafe that also means being way low (below 1,000').

The shot cooking off at 7,000' is highly, highly weird.

Again, I remind all, the F-16 has an electric firing pin, not a mechanical pin, and 25rnds is way, way unlikely for an inadvertent/unintentional burst. Physically not possible for the pilot to burst only 25rnds.

Just me talking.

Oh, and it is possible the pilot was on the range and merely put the switch to the "arm" position. In that case the pilot should have been at an altitude and heading that would preclude any harm IF the gun went off.

In all probability after he came off target he most likely did not go weapons safe and turn off the master arm switch and than hit the trigger accidently with a hot pickle. There is remote chance it was an electrical malfunction or mission computer failure but that is why the master arm switch is always placed back into the safe position immediately after coming off of target. At that altitude he may have accidently hit the trigger thinking the master arm was still safe and the master arm switch was faulty.

In any case he did not treat his F-16 control stick like a weapon an did not follow the cardinal rule of all firearms: Never point your gun muzzle or the nose of your F-16 at anything with your finger on the trigger unless you are intending to shoot and even with the safety on always point your weapon in a safe direction and never with your finger on the trigger.