American Fighter Jet Bombs Australia Building by Mistake
DARWIN, Australia (Aug. 12) - A U.S. Marine Corps fighter jet dropped a bomb and damaged a building in an accident at a remote military range in northern Australia, the government said Friday.
The bomb, dropped by an F/A-18 Hornet, exploded near a control tower and damaged facilities at the Delamere Air Weapons Range in the Northern Territory on Wednesday, Australia's Defense Department said. No one was injured and no details were released on the extent of the damage.
Defense Minister Robert Hill said the mishap was under investigation by both Australian and American authorities.
"We certainly regard it as a serious incident," Hill told reporters in the northern city of Darwin.
Bombing exercises have ceased at the weapons range, some 80 miles south of the town of Katherine.
"Things like this will always happen; we hope not very frequently and we hope not any more dangerously," Prime Minister John Howard told Melbourne Radio 3AW. "But the idea that you can conduct any kind of military exercise without some kind of potential for mishap is unrealistic."
The U.S. Marine contingent, which is based in Japan, was conducting an annual training exercise called Southern Frontier that involves 500 troops, 15 F/A-18 Hornets and two KC-130 Hercules aircraft.
The U.S. Marine Corps said the ordnance was a 500 pound laser-guided bomb, Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
for some odd reason, while the word "Ganya" was still just a thought-dropping in my head, I thought it'd only be four letters. But apparently it's five. yep.
lodgebo said this in post #3 : Not being nasty but does the US not have a lot of these mistakes. And laser guided bombs do not generally miss the intended target.
Yes, the Iraqi civilians are well aware of that and have been for many years. But, hey, at least they died FREE!
I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
- Bill Cosby
The guy who takes a chance, who walks the line between the known and unknown, who is unafraid of failure, will succeed.
- Gordon Parks
Inner City Blue said this in post #4 :
Yes, the Iraqi civilians are well aware of that and have been for many years. But, hey, at least they died FREE!
I'm sorry, but sacrifices are neccessary in order to take out terrorists. Sure there have been some mistakes, but the military doesn't give a **** if they kill 2 terrorists and 5 civilians because htey killed 2 terrorists.
Some mistakes Brochu13 we are talking about more than mistakes the US has the wrose record or friendly fire incidents in the first gulf war, the current gulf war and Afghanistan than all of the other coalition members put together. Take the first days of this war when the US fired missles at RAF tornado fighters killing the pilots and Co - Pilots, Iraq had no air force and planes don't look like missiles so what were they doing taking pot shots at us? This is one of many incidents since 91 I will see if I can find a list or something of the others.
It's true. In reading the war news I'm constantly hearing about "friendly fire" type casualties. Also helicopter crashes, misplaced bombs and accidental killings. I wonder if the US government is looking into these things? Are we careless or arrogant?
08-13-2005 05:43 AM
