Posted on 07/20/2013 5:25:04 AM PDT by naturalman1975
TWO US Marine Corps jets have been forced to drop four unarmed bombs on the Great Barrier Reef.
The two AV-8B Harrier jets each dropped two 226kg bombs on the world heritage-listed reef in an emergency jettison during a training mission on Tuesday.
The incident came ahead of Exercise Talisman Saber, a biennial training operation between Australian and US forces based at Shoalwater Bay on the central Queensland coast.
The dropped bombs had not detonated and a US official has reportedly said the chance of any of them exploding is "extremely remote".
A Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority spokeswoman told News Corp Australia she had not heard about the incident, but would look into it.
The extent of any environmental damage was not clear.
US Navy Commander William Marks, of the 7th Fleet Public Affairs, said the jets had planned to drop the bombs on a range on Townshend Island, but that was foiled when the range was not clear.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
I just read your homepage on FR. Thank you for remembering the fallen heroes.
Woops looks like a dive team will be headed in the direction
Iranian dive teams?
More likely, locals - lots of fun things can be made from the components.
Outback fun & games!
?
If exposed on the bottom, they can be removed but if they burrowed in to the sand, or bored into the reef, just leave them be.
Funny they didn’t seem to worry about where the billions of tons of bombs the Germans and Japanese may have dropped in WWII.
In Florida, we sink old ships to become new reefs.
Nuke the gay whales!
So a couple of 3 foot long hunks of iron (which didn’t explode) were dropped on a reef.
Somehow, I think it will survive...
The comments section of the version of the story at NBC News has person after person crying because of the “damage” to the Reef, and wishing that we’d just the the Harriers crash instead.
Sounds like a future “Hold muh beer” moment to me.
Is this the Reef that is so large that one can see it from space?
Especially when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.
The Darwin Awards committee is awaiting news ........
All good things come to those who wait.
Stupid is as stupid does. Did no one think the clear the range before hand? Why make so many attempts that you're in danger of running out of fuel? So, next week when they get into the same situation, they'll drop something on someone's house? One less attempt and they could have landed safely and saved the bombs for next time. How many tax dollars are now laying on the bottom of the ocean and how many more will be spent on recovery and making nice to the park? I thought the military was complaining about budget cuts? Either it's truly incompetence or something else was planned.
IF they had detonated, there would be four 30 to 50 foot craters which would have destroyed most of the fragile, UN Designated World Heritage site! What a tragedy for Mankind!
After all, it is such a small place.
/sarc
“The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometers or 132,973 sq miles.”
Seriously, I don’t like getting bombed any more than the next guy, but accidents do happen. Anyone know the current Navy policy on returning to the carrier with ordnance? I assume that it is to dump all.
if they cant land with why were they armed with it in the first place?
Are you saying the US dumps hundreds of thousands of expensive bombs and missiles in the ocean every year for no ggood reason?
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