Military Jet Fires cannons at Grade school??

[GreenCloud]

this is strange...Iknow sometiems i bump my trigger and my cannons fire in AH..but I thought the jet pilots had to arm there gusn firts..you know..kinda liek a "safty" swicth


weird...

National Guard Fighter Fires At School In New Jersey

http://www.nbc10.com/news/3890831/detail.html

LITTLE EGG HARBOR, N.J. -- A National Guard F-16 fighter jet on a nighttime training mission Wednesday fired 25 rounds of ammunition that tore through an elementary school. No one was injured.

Police were called to the area when a custodian heard what sounded like someone running across the roof of the school. The custodian was the only person in the school at the time.

My unlce was a ANG in Montana..he brougth me to his brand new plane..HE was so stoked..they jad just all got new f-16s to fly...I sat in it..dam it was badddazzzz..It had no engine in it ..(maintenance)..itis just a HUGE engine with wings on it....But I remember very clearly seeing the vulcan cannon in the fuselage near the pilots seat..dam it is badddazzz
Love
BiGB
xoxo

[Elfie]

It is possible that a malfunction known as *stray voltage* could have caused that gun to fire. Or it could be that the pilot was set up for a strafing run at the nearby range and accidentally hit the trigger.

Stray voltage was a real danger on the F-4 Phantom. I remember having to do checks to verify that there was no voltage present before arming bomb racks and missile launchers.

Also, in '86 every American F-15 Sidewinder missile launcher was modified after an inadvertent firing of a sidewinder missile while escorting a Soviet bomber near Okinawa Japan.

[NUTTZ]

yea, fired 25 rounds of 20mm. He was on a strafing run and missed his target, was supposed to be firing in the pine barrens in New Jersey, and was off target alittle.

At First I thought it was the 177th out of egg harbor, but it was a jet from somewhere in Maryland.

NUTTZ

[Elfie]

If he was already on a strafing run he most likely would have fired far more than 25 rounds, that M61-A1 Vulcan cannon can fire 100 rounds per second, ie 6000 rpm.

Basically that gun fired a .25 second burst, either pilot error or a malfunction with the plane is my best guess at this point.

Btw BigB I used to load and service those cannons. I also performed annual inspections on them where we tore them down and basically rebuilt them.

[NUTTZ]

local news just said the guns fired by accident, the janitor thought someone was on the roof , wasn't until the next day ( today) they found damage inside the building.

NUTTZ

Originally posted by Elfie
If he was already on a strafing run he most likely would have fired far more than 25 rounds, that M61-A1 Vulcan cannon can fire 100 rounds per second, ie 6000 rpm.

Basically that gun fired a .25 second burst, either pilot error or a malfunction with the plane is my best guess at this point.

Btw BigB I used to load and service those cannons. I also performed annual inspections on them where we tore them down and basically rebuilt them.

[Elfie]

Nuttz did the local news specify a malfunction with the plane or an error by the pilot? The military should know by now if the pilot accidentally fired his gun or if the plane had a malfunction.

[Chortle]

Which reminds me,  I used to be in the merchant navy in my misspent youth and one regular offshore anchorage we used waiting for the tide used to attract A10 warthogs who used us as target practice.

I remember they used to fly in pairs, sometimes three, and each take turns lining us up while the others got in position to follow the lead in. I guess we made pretty good targets, thankfully there were no accidental discharges even when we signalled them to F off, noisy, ugly tards

[NUTTZ]

The news reported it was the planes malfuntion.
The Pine Barrens in New jersey are acres and acres of sandy woods, hardly any population at all. Some camp grounds ( boy scouts and girl scouts) but mainly land put aside by the government as animal refuse, deer,black bear, etc. From Philly to Atlantic city is the Atlantic city expressway cuts a straight line right threw it. I'm wondering why a jet would be armed and coming up from Maryland unless somewhere in there, there is a firing range.

NUTTZ

Originally posted by Elfie
Nuttz did the local news specify a malfunction with the plane or an error by the pilot? The military should know by now if the pilot accidentally fired his gun or if the plane had a malfunction.

[Elfie]

Originally posted by NUTTZ
The news reported it was the planes malfuntion.

NUTTZ

Could be any number of things that went wrong, anything from a chafed wire to a computer card.

[Elfie]

Originally posted by GScholz
I bet the Russian crew got excited about that!

I bet they just about crapped their pants, I know I would have

Bad part is, that wasnt the first time something like that happened. (The inadvertent firing of a missile) At first they thought they had the problem isolated to a power supply problem. The USAF used 2 different power supplies, the West PS was thought to be the culprit but that F-15 out of Okinawa had all Entron PS's in its launchers.

Come to find out it was a stray voltage problem. We installed a diode in every single launcher on the wire that had the voltage problem and VIOLA!! no more inadvertent firings

[Otto]

So was he 'aiming' at the school when this happened or did the rounds go ballastic and just hit it by chance?

[Elfie]

Originally posted by Otto
So was he 'aiming' at the school when this happened or did the rounds go ballastic and just hit it by chance?

He could have been making a mock run on the school. AF pilots make mock runs on all kinds of different *targets*, including civilian airliners and boats packed with Brits  (no offense Chortle)

But to answer your question we dont really know at this point.

[john9001]

pilot:: ah control ..i ah ..think ah ..i had a AD...

control ::negitive ghostrider , the pattern is full

[Chortle]

None taken Elfie, although we preferred the term ships rather than boats

It was impressive to be straffed by an A10, I heard later that they trained so at least one plane would be in a firing position every 5 seconds. Not sure how true that is but after watching them it seems believable.

[Blue2]

That Pilot probably thought it was a British Warrior APC!!!!!