F-18 drops inert practice bomb while flying to Virginia Navy base

News Observer ^ | Oct 30, 2007 | AP

[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-

[RDTF]

whoops

[RDTF]

ping

[Allegra]

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

[doorgunner69]

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.

[b4its2late]

MOAB?

[RightWhale]

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

[Calvin Locke]

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.

[doorgunner69]

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..........

[N. Theknow]

My hometown of Florence, SC had an atomic bomb dropped on it in the 1950's.

Link has another link to newsreel.

[neodad]

Ping

[MacDorcha]

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

[RightWhale]

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.

[garyhope]

Bush’s fault.

[Drew68]

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.

[doorgunner69]

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..................

[magslinger]

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.

[theDentist]

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

[AFPhys]

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.

[magslinger]

I’d bet the same way, but see my #16.

[Republican Party Reptile]

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

[Joe 6-pack]

"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."

Yep....same with M1A1 main gun sabot rounds. While the go-to-war darts are depleted uranium and fin-stabilized, the target practice rounds are machined aluminum with a perforated cone around the base in lieu of fins. The TP rounds generally replicate the trajectory of the DU rounds out to about 2,500 meters or so, then drop energy pretty rapidly...just in case...

[1rudeboy]

"Someone set us up the bomb."

[Red6]

That’s what I thought while reading-

Feel sorry for that pilot right about now.

[Pentagon Leatherneck]

USAF beats Navy. Biggest FUBAR of the month.

Switches gentlemen, switches.

TC

[Mat_Helm]

After coming off the range he would have placed the master arm switch to safe and would have been out of A/G mode and back in A/A mode. The practice bomb probably hung up on the pylon store position and was no longer shown on his DDI stores configuration weapon page. While on the range if it failed to release and he knew it was hung up than he would have select jettisoned the store or the pylon if either failed to release. Probably had no idea the little iron practice bomb was still hung up on the store and you can’t feel them pickle off. The range spotter should have been able to tell him of the problem. Doubtful he still had ordnance on, went into A/G mode and weapons hot and than hit the pickle button all on accident, unless flying over Tehran.

[Dumpster Baby]

[rmlew]

Great. Just 6 years after looking up in the ksy in horror we bomb ourselves.
The truthers must be having a field day.

[Bean Counter]

“Lawn Dart loses Lawn Dart...”

[AFPhys]

Right.

The way I see it, this incident qualifies as a success for the US military, not an embarrassment.

[Wilum]

I'm a navy ordnanceman

Ole' Air Force bombloader here to agree or just a hung rack after trying to drop it at the range.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

I hate you.

[Joe 6-pack]

"The way I see it, this incident qualifies as a success for the US military, not an embarrassment."

Agreed.

[359Henrie]

Remember the “Things falling off aircraft”?

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

The jet landed safely at Oceana.

Which is more than can be said for the pilot's career.

[Stonewall Jackson]

I remember when my dad was stationed at Fort Hood back in 1984-5, a tornado hit the commissary annex and sucked a whole bunch of canned goods up into the funnel cloud. There were several people hospitalized after being struck by these cans.

[B4Ranch]

b4its2late is truly disgusting and no doubt having a good chuckle now that he made me almost puke my dinner all over the desk.

[El Gato]

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.

At least this one was one of the little "dumb" practice bombs. Some of the practice bombs are inert, but the same size and weight as the real thing, particularly the precision guided ones. Of course those aren't cheap, the guidance kit si the expensive part, and so they don't get used much in practice. 500 lbs of inert JDAM or Paveway LGB, would really mess up your factory.

[TheGunny]

Mk 76 training bomb.

[Ironnads]

When a bdu-48 is hung the pilot will make an attempt shake it off while over the target area. After that all he can do is try to avoid populated areas to the max extent possible. There is no 100% solution to an inadvertent release on the way back to base, but they are extremely (1 in thousands) rare. When one does fall the damage is limited to an area about the size of a basketball. Is it worth it? How much is your freedom worth? Quit bitching.