kayla84

CrashingOut

shenanigans61

YouCanEatMe

shenanigans61

Corion

shenanigans61

Saboteur

LindsayJoy's MBP is into S+M

Lupison

Im just sick of all of the ignorant whining people make on forums like this. Granted, it may be human nature to moan and cry ... it just doesn't make you look any smarter.

numetheus

Barry99705

Well, for the last 20 or so years, the cartridge is designed to not start forest fires. So it's more like theatrical smoke devices than a "bomb". It has more risk being inhaled than causing a fire. The concentrated smoke is not harmless, unlike theatrical smoke, but dissipates quickly. (Assuming they haven't changed the formula since I was active duty.)

In order for the charge to "kill someone" he'd have to stick it in his mouth and strike the pin. Quite frankly, the mass of that thing at terminal velocity is the only real risk to it. It would have to strike your person in the head or torso directly. I'm not a mathematician but the odds of that are pretty slim.

shawn_dude

The "bomb" is roughly the size of a football, painted blue, and has a concrete teardrop on one end and metal fin on the back. There's a hollow tube running up the middle. A cartridge, not unlike a shotgun shell in shape and design, is slotted into this tube. There's a crude pin assembly that goes on the nose that fires the cartridge. The cartridge is there to create a flameless smoke. (No Micheal Jackson jokes, please.)

This is as much a "bomb", in the sense most people think, as a cinderblock is. The important fact to take away from this is that it's essentially as bad to drop from a plane as a cinderblock or bowling ball. Once shouldn't drop these things, certainly, but there's zero risk of it wiping out a city block or blowing up. The bomb this thing is intended to simulate is over 10 times as large.

When a chunk of blue ice (ahem) falls from a 747 we don't go into these fits of panic. We all make "peanut" jokes and wonder if someone carted it to the local community college thinking it was a meteorite.

This isn't that different.

P.S. IYAAYAS.

shawn_dude

Razta

Could be the Bush administration establishing (confirming) a trail of incompetence to cover up their nuking of Iran (or New York).

stwf

Did you even read the article, or just look at the pretty picture?

hmphargh

tinshaker

JordyO

shenanigans61

Bombs are dropped, Missiles are fired. Bomb =/= Missile. The pilot had a BOMB release on him. He did NOT release a missile. I expect no more mistakes.

Con Seannery

fastmike

Why don't you show us just how unhappy you are big boy. A truck coming through texas to california had a blowout going down the freeway and flipped, spilling toxing chemicals into the roadway, causing many many problems. I suppose its the trucking companies fault for the accident and the trucker should be fired because of something out of his control right?

Who cares if there was an accident in a place where you have people you love. Accidents happen. Its called life. You either deal with it, or lock yourself in a steal bubble with an air tank and no access to the outside world so you dont have to be part of any of it. Unless of course the air tank fails because you don't maintain it, and you die ... then its the fault of the company that made the empty air canister right?

numetheus

DigitalTrix

haha he still might if he goes back in time and skips work that day

70ph3r

skulldriveshaft

The Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator's locking mechanism failed and missed Rosie O'Donnell's secret lesbian love fortress. The lack of the earth-shattering kaboom is on account of sunspots.

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

For crying out loud, this used to be a great place, but every day I see more and more people turning into cover-my-ass, quick-to-blame, can't-read-the-article-that-disproves-my-theory, idiotic fools.

Next time, read. And try making a logical reason for an event before responding emotionally.

"Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret." -Ambrose Bierce

shenanigans61

shenanigans61

FLskydiver

CMU_Bueller

1. The pilot "pickled" the bomb, meaning he (or she) triggered the drop. It's likely this was a Mark 76 practice bomb.

2. More than likely, this was hug ordnance, meaning it didn't drop, but gave an indication that it did.

If there was a forward air controller, he or she may or may not have been in a position to see the impact (or lack of one). The pilot should generally look for a puff of smoke, but may have just thought it wasn't visible.

It almost certainly wasn't the pilot's fault. It could have been a weapons loader's fault (ordnancemen in the Navy, where I served). The ordnance loaders may have loaded the weapon improperly, and the pilot may have missed that during the preflight. Or maybe it looked okay during the preflight.

Sometimes, "things" just happen, and it's possible there's nobody to blame for this.

MyPetFly

detraya

grok666

Kit Eaton

MadCrazy

BTW sparky, you are not the first to imply it wasn't the pilots fault. Relax. We are ALL idiots here. Yourself included.

izim1

the BDU-33 is a smoke charged practice bomb that is dispensed from at SUU-20 bomb/rocket dispenser for practice purposes only. there are no sensors on these simplistic units to show if ordnance is loaded or released. it takes a considerable amount of pilot interaction to release ordnance from an aircraft... a whole lot more that just pressing the pickle button. and once over a range and dropping the ordnance, the pilot has to count how many puffs of smoke compared to button weapons release button presses to know how many bombs he has left or if any had failed to release.

bottom line, this is purely an accident, and not in any way pilot related. if anything, the weapons load crew and the load team chief are to blame for improperly loading the BDU into place... or the armament maintenance unit for letting an improperly serviced SUU-20 out after inspection.

oakie

Shew. Stupidity and ignorance are the parents of probably 95% of usless anger in this world.

shenanigans61

kc2idf

Don't fuck with Bush

Mith

Barry99705

fastmike

ashwinmudigonda

Pilots value one thing and one thing only - the permission to fly the fast jets. And the thing that qualifies you to fly the jet is that you don't fuck anything up. By admitting that he did something wrong he will be admitting that he indeed fucked up, that he doesn't have what it takes.

This sort of thing used to happen all the time with the test pilots - they would do something against regulation, they'd perform some stunt maneuver or whatever, and the plane would break apart, and afterwards they'd say stuff like "Well I don't know what happened, the thing just went crazy on me!"

Gus Grissom used that defense when his hatch blew on the second manned Mercury mission and he (unfairly) got branded for most of the rest of his career with the reputation of a pilot who fucked it up.

My guess - the pilot accidentally hit the button and is now in CYA mode for fear of losing his wings.

Marcelo

CliftonSantiago

lazerpenguin

gadgetfanatic

pellier

ethanthom

Anyway, there's probably a bunch of ways that the bomb could have come off the rack unintentionally without it being due to improper training, improper maintenance, or just stupidity. During the flight, some piece of debris could have gotten stuck in the spring that releases the weapon and it could have hung for a while after leaving the range, for example. It could be any number of things.

We're all lucky nothing worse happened, but honestly, shit happens.

frankedb

tme2nsb

HaddenHizat

FubarGuy

PDAisAok

(irony, for those who didn't pick it up)

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

grayskyz

faabshaam

We lived in Wichita for ten years and used to joke that the only way anyone would ever bomb the place would be if they aimed for Omaha and missed. Who knew we shoulda been looking the other way.

infmom

I get to use a clever reference to The Gap Band twice in one week. Damn.

scarbrtj

Blackmage71

Shmo on phone to Pentagon: "yeah, uhmm your bomb fell through my house"
Pentagon: "we'll send someone right out - sorry for the inconvenience"
Shmo at house: "see, there it is, I started to clean it up - don't mind the tile-saw and color-swatches"
Military dude: "sir, that's the tail end of a nerf rocket - $14.99 at WalMart"
Shmo: "no it's not! Hand over a check, I need more grease for my hair and Iroc needs gas!"

zarchitect

Amiash Loves You

strider_mt2k

awperk

Slartibartfast

Final

No. Just no, man. Think about it some more, and come back.

CaseyG

Ednonymous

bemused0

bemused0

bemused0

Blaming the pilot isn't the right course of action.

Maybe keeping training flights over the range until stuff is confirmed or some kind of a flyover prior to leaving the area so a visual can be done would help?

I mean taking five minutes to do a flyover isn't going to raise anyone's budget or anything.

strider_mt2k

now ask yourselves how a terrorist could possably bomb a city if the americans cant tell the differance between a field and one of thier own citys ?

fastmike

According to the video the pilot was told he was over a field. Thats why I assumed he was given the go ahead to drop the dummy bomb. I guess no one really knows what happened. Regardless, at least no one got hurt.

NutManIV

izim1

Phishy

Phishy

albinofury

Stang70Fastback

Stang70Fastback

mariogalaxyman

NutManIV

discounteggroll

dead_red_eyes

We've been pushing for an actual invasion of Tulsa for years.

92BuickLeSabre