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View Full Version : OMG F-16 Shoots up a school IN NEW JERSEY



Nickdfresh
11-04-2004, 05:41 PM
CNN's Wolf Blitzer has has just reported that a US Air National Guard F-16 Fighting Falcon jet fighter/bomber accidentally strifed a elementary school in New Jersey with its 20mm vulcan cannon. No one was injured thank God. A total of 25 rounds hit the school as the pilot was on a live fire excercise and somehow got disoriented and attacked the school instead of his intended parctice target, a structure located on a nearby "training grounds." :confused:

Switch84
11-04-2004, 05:44 PM
:eek: :eek: SEND THAT PILOT IN FOR A DRUG SCREENING!

VHII
11-04-2004, 05:48 PM
why are they practicing near schools anyway?

Nickdfresh
11-04-2004, 06:00 PM
I have no idea?? But I think a court martial is in order!

ODShowtime
11-04-2004, 06:03 PM
Originally posted by VHII
why are they practicing near schools anyway?

per AP, the training grounds were in use since post WWII when the area was not populated

BrownSound1
11-04-2004, 06:10 PM
Accidents do occasionally happen, but thank God no one was hurt.

BITEYOASS
11-04-2004, 09:30 PM
Originally posted by Nickdfresh
CNN's Wolf Blitzer has has just reported that a US Air National Guard F-16 Fighting Falcon jet fighter/bomber accidentally strifed a elementary school in New Jersey with its 20mm vulcan cannon. No one was injured thank God. A total of 25 rounds hit the school as the pilot was on a live fire excercise and somehow got disoriented and attacked the school instead of his intended parctice target, a structure located on a nearby "training grounds." :confused:

Dumbass Air Force pilots! I've read recently in a naval aviation safety magazine that the USAF pilota are poppin pills approved by the air force doctors to keep em awake. Added to the fact that USAF can't do air support missions for the ground troops worth a shit and miss there targets most of the time. Whereas the USN and USMC aviators can practically hit a needle in a fuckin hay stack with there bombs nearly 100% percent of the time. When was the last time you read in the news about a navy or marine corps pilot screwing up like this within the past 5 years?

John Ashcroft
11-04-2004, 10:35 PM
Originally posted by BITEYOASS
Dumbass Air Force pilots! I've read recently in a naval aviation safety magazine that the USAF pilota are poppin pills approved by the air force doctors to keep em awake. Added to the fact that USAF can't do air support missions for the ground troops worth a shit and miss there targets most of the time. Whereas the USN and USMC aviators can practically hit a needle in a fuckin hay stack with there bombs nearly 100% percent of the time. When was the last time you read in the news about a navy or marine corps pilot screwing up like this within the past 5 years?

Heh heh heh... Ween yourself off the crack friend, it's gonna kill you!

Air Force Pilots are the best in the world! You've seen Top Gun one too many times! :D

Seriously, accidents happen. It's part of having humans involved in the process. Don't know the details of this particular incident, but the pilot in question will most certainly be grounded and discharged. Like with any profession, there are people good at their jobs, and people who are bad at their jobs (doctors included, scary isn't it?). The stakes are just extremely higher when firing live rounds.

I've personally flown with naval aviators and Air Force aviators. For a few thousand hours. There's not much difference overall (other than the simple fact that the Air Force has been tasked with 90% of air-ops, vs. the Navy's 10%). Aviators from both branches take their duties extremely seriously. And aviators from both branches understand the stakes. But I've also met complete dumb-asses from both branches. No one's exempt.

I wonder if the poster of this article expects a military man to be 100% perfect, all of the time. Interesting that same standard isn't applied to the typical welfare recipient... Or federal employee... Or liberal politician...

Nickdfresh
11-04-2004, 10:43 PM
Actually I wouldn't know personally but I've heard Army grunts say if you need a close support mission and it's an option, call the Marines first.

conmee
11-04-2004, 10:47 PM
I feel the need... the need for SPEED!!!!! lmao

Top Gun is classic...

Actually, this whole story disturbs me BECAUSE no one was injured... how can you not hit anyone with a 20mm 'cannon' when strafing a civilian target using the most sophisticated weaponry and targeting systems on the planet?!?!?! Maybe recess was already over...

:monkey:

Icon.

bueno bob
11-04-2004, 11:02 PM
WHERE THE EAGLES FLY.........

knuckleboner
11-04-2004, 11:34 PM
Originally posted by John Ashcroft
Air Force Pilots are the best in the world! You've seen Top Gun one too many times! :D



sure...when they're landing on a nice big, long, non-undulating with the waves airstrip...;)

(sorry, i grew up in a navy family:D)


and, conmee, you know where the plaque for the alternates is don't you?

sammy's dressing room...

Nickdfresh
11-04-2004, 11:35 PM
Originally posted by conmee
I feel the need... the need for SPEED!!!!! lmao

Top Gun is classic...

Actually, this whole story disturbs me BECAUSE no one was injured... how can you not hit anyone with a 20mm 'cannon' when strafing a civilian target using the most sophisticated weaponry and targeting systems on the planet?!?!?! Maybe recess was already over...

:monkey:

Icon.

Actually it was in the middle of the night. -But-

Your upset because elementary school children didn't get wasted? You are an:

Nickdfresh
11-05-2004, 12:51 PM
Fighter jet strafes New Jersey school
Friday, November 5, 2004 Posted: 7:49 AM EST (1249 GMT)


Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School is cordoned off after it was fired on Wednesday night.


LITTLE EGG HARBOR, New Jersey (AP) -- The target was an object on the ground well within the confines of the Warren Grove firing range, a 2,400-acre scrub pine expanse used by the military to train pilots in bombing and strafing techniques.

But when the heavy gun in the left wing of an Air National Guard F-16 fighter jet fired Wednesday night, it sent 25 rounds of 20mm ammunition smashing through the roof and zinging off the asphalt parking lot of the Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School 3 1/2 miles from the range.

Military investigators are trying to determine how it could have happened.

A custodian was the only person in the school when the shots hit at 11 p.m., and no one was injured.

The jet that fired the rounds was assigned to the 113th Wing of the District of Columbia Air National Guard, based at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. It returned there after the shots were fired, an Air National Guard spokesman said.

Military officials would not identify the pilot. Operations were suspended at the firing range pending completion of the investigation.

Police were called after the custodian heard what sounded like someone running across the roof.

Police Chief Mark Siino said officers who responded noticed punctures in the roof. Ceiling tiles had fallen into classrooms, and there were scratch marks in the asphalt outside.

The pilot of the single-seat jet was supposed to fire at a ground target on the firing range 31/2 miles from the school, said Col. Brian Webster, commander of the 177th Fighter Wing of the New Jersey Air National Guard, which is responsible for the range.

The plane was flying at 7,000 feet when the rounds were fired from the M61-A1 Vulcan cannon in the plane's left wing. The weapon fires 2-inch-long lead projectiles that do not explode, Webster said.

Webster said he did not know what caused the gun to fire.

"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."

Mike Dupuis, president of the township's Board of Education, said school workers are mindful that the firing range is nearby.

"Being so close to the range, that's always in the back of our minds. It is very scary. I have children in that school and relatives that work there," he said.

Schools in New Jersey were closed Thursday because of a teachers convention.

The Warren Grove range, about 30 miles north of Atlantic City, has been used by the military since the end of World War II, long before the surrounding area was developed.

In 2002, an Air National Guard F-16 that had been practicing at the range crashed along the Garden State Parkway. The plane's pilot ejected safely, and no one on the ground was hurt.

Errant practice bombs were blamed for forest fires that burned more than 11,000 acres of the Pine Barrens near the range in 1999 and more than 1,600 acres in 2002.



http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/11/05/school.strafed.ap/index.html (http://)

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/11/05/school.strafed.ap/index.html://

Katydid
11-05-2004, 03:16 PM
Originally posted by conmee
I feel the need... the need for SPEED!!!!! lmao

Top Gun is classic...

Actually, this whole story disturbs me BECAUSE no one was injured... how can you not hit anyone with a 20mm 'cannon' when strafing a civilian target using the most sophisticated weaponry and targeting systems on the planet?!?!?! Maybe recess was already over...

:monkey:

Icon.

Too bad he wasn't practicing over CO>

Ally_Kat
11-05-2004, 03:38 PM
Originally posted by Nickdfresh
"Being so close to the range, that's always in the back of our minds. It is very scary. I have children in that school and relatives that work there," he said.



I wouldn't have put a school there then, although it happened late at night. Do they only run late night? I can hardly see how they can teach a whole school of children with the sounds of F-16's and the rest flying all over the place. Hell, we have fly overs here all the time now. The other day two of those suckers flew over my part of Queens super-low. Couldn't hear yourself think over those two things for a good 15 minutes. It honestly looked like that were going to land either in the cemetary or were taking a low approach to LaGuardia. Although, I highly doubted they landed there.

Nickdfresh
11-05-2004, 10:10 PM
That really is a bad place to put a school. Something like this was bound to happen, though I doubt it would happen during the day.