Monday, October 15, 2018

Belgian Air Force Mechanic Accidentally Fires An F-16's Vulcan Cannon And Destroys Another F-16 Fighter Jet On The Ground

Belgian Air Force via Scramble Magazine

Business Insider: A Belgian air force mechanic accidentally opened fire on and destroyed an F-16 fighter jet while servicing another warplane

* A Belgian air force mechanic servicing a warplane accidentally opened fire and destroyed another F-16 jet fighter on Thursday.
* An investigation has been opened into the incident to find out whether there was any wrongdoing.

A Belgian air force mechanic servicing a warplane at a base in the south of the country opened fire and destroyed another F-16 jet fighter on the tarmac, public broadcaster VRT said on Friday, citing unidentified sources.

An investigation has been opened into Thursday's incident and the commander of the Florennes airfield told RTBF television that the inquiry would look at whether there was any wrongdoing.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: This mechanic has a lot of explaining to do.

More News On A Belgian Air Force Mechanic Accidentally Firing A Vulcan Cannon And Destroying An F-16 Fighter Jet On The Ground

The moment a Belgian mechanic accidentally destroys an F-16 fighter jet with cannon -- The Telegraph
Technician Accidentally Fires Warplane's Vulcan Canon, Destroys F-16 -- Newsweek
Technician Accidentally Fires Vulcan Cannon And Destroys An F-16 On The Ground In Belgium -- Task and Purpose
F-16 Completely Destroyed By Another F-16 After Mechanic Accidentally Fires Cannon On The Ground In Belgium -- Aviationist
Two Belgian F-16 Fighter Jets Destroyed in Accidental Cannon Fire -- Defense World
Here are the photos of the F-16 that a Belgian air force mechanic accidentally destroyed with a Vulcan cannon -- Business Insider

4 comments:

Andrew Jackson said...

DOH!!!!

Anonymous said...

This and that one negligent discharge of an Aim-9 (Estonian, I believe) makes one wonder how we didn't get significantly more and worse situations during the cold war.

fazman said...

The very next day homer started back at the power plant

Terrekain said...

OK, wait one sec.

I'm not a pilot, but I have military and engineering experience. I am almost certain there's an interlock or safety that engages to cut out the Gatling guns firing circuit when the landing gear is engaged. You literally have to de-energize or disable multiple signal/power by looking through the scat-pack, maybe pull a breaker here and there to make these kinds of "accidents" happen. Even if that wasn't the case, it is near impossible to go through the ARM, PRE-ARM sequences of making the guns ready to engage without deliberate intent to fire. It boggles the mind that ANY mechanic wouldn't know that the drum was loaded, let alone the system "safed" before working on it - it's maintenance 101.

This sounds fishy as hell.