Flashermac Posted October 18, 2018 Report Share Posted October 18, 2018 A maintenance worker accidentally fired a 20mm Vulcan cannon from an F-16 jet at a Belgian air force base, destroying a nearby F-16 jet and damaging others, according to reports. The technician at Florennes Air Basein southern Belgium accidentally fired the weapon while performing maintenance work on the plane, hitting an F16 parked on tarmac in front of a hangar, Avio News reported. The plane hit was full of fuel at the time and caught fire, and another plane nearby was damaged. The Belgian Air Force confirmed the incident at the airbase, and said that two mechanics were being treated for hearing loss caused by the blast. An investigation has been opened into Thursday’s incident and the commander of the Florennes airfield told Belgium’s RTBF television that the inquiry would look at whether there was any wrongdoing. “You can’t help thinking of what a disaster this could have been,” said Colonel Didier Polome, who flew back from the Baltic where Belgian F-16s are policing NATO’s frontier with Russia https://www.newsweek.com/technician-accidentally-fires-vulcan-canon-destroying-f16-airbase-tarmac-1168715?fbclid=IwAR16M2j2TRzPMwQMZZ3PbFOHFTbjhNv3knX8sbXwJrCYKPhWYATAE64xv9Q Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted October 18, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coss Posted October 18, 2018 Report Share Posted October 18, 2018 Ooops! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mekong Posted October 18, 2018 Report Share Posted October 18, 2018 Accidental my Backside, weapons systems should have been isolated before maintenance worker started work. This was caused by a procedural cock up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buffalo_bill Posted October 18, 2018 Report Share Posted October 18, 2018 Suggest transfer to inactive post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mekong Posted October 18, 2018 Report Share Posted October 18, 2018 Can you get more inactive than Belgium? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted October 18, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2018 Well, a Thai Army colonel told me about an officer who was made commanding general of the inactive reserve. He said the guy had effed up everything he did, but they couldn't demote him because he'd lose face. So they side tracked him to command an entire floor full of filing cabinets, with a couple of sergeants to make coffee for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baa99 Posted October 19, 2018 Report Share Posted October 19, 2018 That'll buff right out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted October 19, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2018 If it had been Qantas, they'd make the plane flyable again so they could continue to claim having no hull losses of a jet. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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