USAF drops practice bomb on Yorkshire

[NineEighteen]

From BBC Online (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/3389957.stm)US airforce practice bomb has been dropped on the Yorkshire countryside.

A spokesman for the United States airforce (USAF) said on Monday that the 25-pound BDU-33 training bomb landed in an area near Holme on Spalding Moor - six miles south west of Market Weighton in East Yorkshire.

The accident happened at about 1715 GMT on 8 January.

The device was dropped from an RAF Lakenheath F-15 fighter jet.

It was an inert practice bomb and no-one was hurt in the incident.

First Lieutenant Augustine Ekpoudom said: "There were no injuries, limited property damage, and the inert munition was recovered.

"The F-15E Strike Eagle was conducting a routine training mission at the time of the incident.

"Trained and experienced base personnel including Ministry of Defence, and local constabulary authorities responded to the scene and an investigation team is determining the cause of the incident."Note: I deleted the original thread because it was nonsense.

[soddim]

Does that count as another blue on blue?

[John (Gary) Cooper]

I heard a rumour that OBL had been spotted in the area, an F-15 was scrambled from Lakenheath in case OBL escaped across the border into Afghanistan.:ok:

[BEagle]

Just another disaster scenario dreamed up by the Emmerdale script writers - only the USAF took it literally? "Eh, Zak, them Yanks have bombed our pigs..."

Irregular release outside a danger area. I'm sure that a BoI will sort out the cause; the hysteria of the press should be given scant attnetion.

[NURSE]

another incontinent delivery of ordnance.

[jimgriff]

USAF 1- Friendly field 0

Hey guys , could have been a 1,000lb'er...

then the brown smelly stuff would have hit the air circulation system!!

[Divergent Phugoid!]

I heard another rumour that the Spams had discovered that a bomb had been placed on board one of their aircraft.... And this time it was for real!!

The security on the base is said to have been stepped up and an investigation is underway as to how this happened!!



:O :O :O

[steamchicken]

When regional government comes in we'll reform 609 and 616, Yorkshire clearly needs independent AD..

[The Claw]

Well, the Yanks need to keep in "training" for the next time we go to war with them.......wouldn't want to bomb the enemy by mistake. :} :}

[ZH875]

So Maggie Thatcher finally pursuaded the Bush Administration to begin the removal of that the Fearsome Yorkshire Dictator Arthur Scargill. In typical American fashion they arrived a couple of years late....

Better not tell them where I live...

[WorkingHard]

It is very good news that no one was hurt in this unfortunate incident. I do wonder why all contributors so far have taken this so lightly, as if it is a natural and regular occurence. Please tell me I am mistaken. I can just imagine the uproar if this had happened in the States. How can this uncommanded release happen? Equipment failure, crew failure etc? Serious question and not directed at this incident which someone rightly said will be properly dealt with by a BoI.

[Capt. Manuvar]

Workinghard
I seem to recall something like this happened in the US a while back.
An F-117? drop a practise bomb on a house or to be precise a toilet. Talk about sh@t hitting the fan :}

[Divergent Phugoid!]

I actually have a very very good friend who lives in Holme on Spalding Moor. She suggested the "Oh my god theres a bomb on our aircraft!" theory.

She also suggested that the "Crew" were bored and one said "I wonder what this button does..."

She is not an aviation buff. She doesn't know about the Bomb Release mechanisms on an F 15.

She does have her own opinion of the Americans and they ramshackle way they seem to opperate, with all the blue on blue etc.

This one was literally too close to home, a matter of a few hundred yards, but she still has a sence of humour, even though some one or something has seriously fowled up. She suspects the former.




:cool:

[hairyclameater]

Jimgriff- why on earth would any military a/c be carrying a live 1,000Iber in peace time??

This sure has happened before in the states, many times, as indeed in many countries. Its just unfortunate that this green and pleasant land of ours is just so small and damn overcrowded that if something like this does happen - theres gonna be someone somewhere fairly close by - even in the wilds of N Yorks, mid Wales, Scottish highlands etc etc.

Finally why is eveyone having a go at the Yanks as though they are the only ones stupid enough to do this kinda thing??
Anyone remember the "blacked runway at Waddington thread" from 19 December!??

[jimgriff]

Hairyclameater:

It is quite possible that live 1,000lb bombs are carried in peactime.
Thats why we have ranges all over the place. I understand that Garvey has had more tonnage of bombs dropped on it than Bagdad!!

[Cardinal Puff]

Didn't an Oz F/A18 put one through a Land Cruiser parked in a garage a couple of years ago?

[moggie]

Still, it´s not as impressive as the two FULL 2250l fuel tanks that one of my mates dropped from an F3 in the VERY near vicinity of the Shell service station by the A1.

No names mentioned, but the CVR tape was VERY well covered with expletives!

[Oggin Aviator]

..... had the service station run out then :D :D ???

[mr hanky]

Didn't an Oz F/A18 put one through a Land Cruiser parked in a garage a couple of years ago?

From memory that was a captive carriage AIM-7 - not the pilot's fault, just came off. The Landcruiser was some poor bloke's pride and joy, having just undergone a lengthy restoration. No doubt he was somewhat surprised and disappointed to discover a dirty great missile sticking out of what was left of it.

There was a BDU-33 incident here, going back 10 or 15 years when an exchange officer (not US, in case you were wondering) targeted the wrong coloured light while night bombing, and went for the range hut instead of the target. Fortunately he missed, but I believe the fire tender wasn't so lucky...

[C130J Loady]

Sounds an awful lot like the RAAF Accident a few years ago. They dropped a CATM (Captive Air Training Missile), basically an inert Aim-7/9 off the wingtip station of a Hornet. Only problem was, they did it over the middle of a city! The missile dropped onto some poor blokes Land Rover and completely destroyed it. Apparently it missed his family, who were having a BBQ by about 15'.
The RAAF gave him a new 4x4 though, and Land Rover used it in their Ad campaign....The only way to destroy a Rover.. Hit it with a missile! P-)
Seriously though, mistakes can and do happen, much as we hate to admit it...We just have to think about what we are going to do before we do it, to minimise this sort of thing. And hope not to be under the next we-know-not-what, that gets dropped of an aircraft, be it military or civillian.

Tailwinds

[BOING]

Many years ago a Javelin dropped an air-to-air (red top?) on a golf course. Missed the hole-in-one but did manage to get it on the green.

[BEagle]

If it was a Javelin, surely a Firestreak? I thought only Lightnings and Sea Vixens carried the Red Top?

There was the famous case of a Canberra (I think) which managed to put a practice bomb into the lavatory of some pub near Wainfleet, wasn't there?

But I once flew with an aged old navigator who'd been on Lincolns - they'd made some huge cock-up and bombed some wildlife reserve in Tchermany instead of the range, resulting in several million ducks becoming somewhat Cat 5! Qvestions ver asked in sehr high places!

I was also told that a B36 mistook the (then) roundabout at Norman Cross on the A1 for the lights of some range and manged to drop some practice bombs across it - don't know whether that was true or not!

[nimrodnosewheel]

Moggie et al,

Not forgetting the two drop tanks offloded by a GR1 at Lossie, 21.12.99, right on the boundary road on takeoff. A helluva job to clean up and left the gentle smell of AVGAS wafting over the road for weeks after.

[GH]

USAF drops practice bomb on Yorkshire

Practice makes perfect.

[Gainesy]

And as related in the Vulcan thread, the RAFG Canberra that lobbed a practice bomb into the NAAFI car park at Akrotiri.
Need to go some to beat the B-36 crew that "oopsed" a 20 MT Mk 17 nuke over Albuquerque in 1957.:uhoh:

[Top Bunk Tester]

NNW

Why would a GR1 be carrying externals filled with AVGAS, if this were the case then the tanks hitting the ground would be very soon followed by the GR1n :D :D :D :D

[Mr C Hinecap]

If it was AVGAS there would probably have been a 'king big bang as well! Bless the Kipperfleet. They are from a former, gentler age.

[pulse1]

If it was a Javelin, surely a Firestreak? I thought only Lightnings and Sea Vixens carried the Red Top?

I suspect that the Red Top on the golf course was in fact from a Sea Vixen. An old friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, admitted having dropped one onto a golf course while on final approach. Can't remember whether it was into Lossiemouth or Yeovilton.

I understand that they successfully convinced the Golf Club that a new bunker just there was exactly what they needed.

[Davey Emcee]

Not to forget the Lynx fire extinguisher that fell out and went through the roof of the Monkeys garage in Aldershot.:O

[witchdoctor]

They obviously heard that Scarborough wants to rebrand as the "Las Vegas of the North" and thought they were taking part in a Yorkshire Red Flag. The old GPS must need reprogramming too - Doncaster is miles away!

Still, it all makes a refreshing change to the RAF sticking fast jets in the Yorkshire turf instead. Whatever will these defence cuts lead to next.:}

[steamchicken]

http://personal.rhul.ac.uk/mnss/157/Ranterpix/hwk200.gif

[ZH875]

At last, decent equipment for 609 Sqn. Tally Ho...

[Beeayeate]

Oh dear what can the matter be
Three old ladies locked in the lavatory
Hiding from bombs from Monday to Saturday
9 Squadron knew they were there.

;)

A 9 Sqn Canberra let go a 25lb practice bomb which, falling straight and true, demolished the outside bog of the Prussian Queen pub in Saltfleetby.

:ok:

[BEagle]

That's the one! Running in to Theddlethorpe or Cowden, I guess?