An Air Force jet accidentally dropped three dummy bombs over Florida after hitting a bird on July 1.
“During a routine training mission, an A-10C Thunderbolt II assigned to the 23d Fighter Group suffered a bird strike which caused an inadvertent release of three BDU-33s, a small non-explosive training munition,” said the 23rd Wing Public Affairs.
Authorities are investigating the incidence and no injuries or damages have been reported.
The air force base said the dummy bomb released is a 25-pound training munition used to simulate the M1a-82 500-pound bomb.
“It is approximately 22-and-a-half inches long and is blue in color. Although the training munition is inert, it is equipped with a small pyrotechnic charge and should not be handled,” it said.
The authorities have cautioned people not to touch the munition if they come across it. “If the training munition is found, do not approach it, take note of the location, leave the area and keep others away,” said the 23rd Wing Public Affairs.
Anybody who sights the munition or has any information about it can contact the 23d Wing Command Post at (229) 257-3501 or their local authorities.
The 25-pound practice bomb landed into the bathroom of the apartment. No one was at home at that time and no loss was reported, although the family owning the apartment was very shaken up.
The apartment just west of Lewis on 51st Street belonged to Jeremy Isbell and the bathroom on which the bomb fell belonged to his child. He was happy that his wife and two children were not at home when the incident happened.
“I woke up this morning after having 30 minutes of sleep, and I was like, ‘Did this really happen?’ I had to go in the bathroom when the power finally came on. ‘Did I get hit by a missile?' It would make a great dream, but I think it really happened,” Isbell told News On 6.
The couple had stayed at work a little longer and that saved their lives. “Luckily we both stayed at work a little bit longer to make up on our hours that we missed and it probably saved our lives, you know,” said Isbell.
The munition was called Bomb Dummy Unit 33 and it was dropped by the F-16 fighter jet. The training bomb did not carry any explosives.
“Extremely loud gunshot or blast, almost like a small cannon or something like that,” Garth Van Wyke who heard the impact of the dummy bomb told the outlet.
The pilot of the jet did not know when the bomb fell. “A lot of different speculations as to what might have happened. Some of it could be human error; some of it could be material failure. We just don’t know yet,” said Major General Bud Wyatt, Oklahoma Air National Guard.
