More on pilot error ....... NEW JERSEY strafing
From: Joel M. Eichen (joeleichen_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 12/18/04
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Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 08:19:14 -0500
Posted on Sat, Dec. 18, 2004
R E L A T E D C O N T E N T
JOHN COSTELLO / Inquirer
Col. Brian L. Webster, commander of the 177th Fighter Wing of the New
Jersey Air National Guard, speaks at the Little Egg Harbor Township
Building. About 70 people attended the public meeting last night.
F-16 pilot misused targeting device
The Air Force said he squeezed the trigger too hard, sending bullets
into a S. Jersey school.
By Edward Colimore and Adam Fifield
Inquirer Staff Writers
An Air National Guard F-16 pilot was trying to use a laser-targeting
device when he accidentally squeezed the trigger too hard, firing 20mm
rounds that landed on a South Jersey school last month, the Air Force
said yesterday.
The pilot had been warned against using the laser marker - located on
the same trigger as the gun - before taking off on the training
mission over the Warren Grove Weapons Range in Ocean County.
Air Force investigators said that poor control design, the flight
pattern, and lack of published safety procedures contributed to the
accidental discharge of bullets.
The pilot, identified as Maj. Roberto Balzano of the 113th Wing of the
District of Columbia National Guard, based at Andrews Air Force Base
in Maryland, was turning for his strafing run at 9:10 p.m. Nov. 3 when
he unintentionally squeezed the trigger too hard.
The aircraft's gun fired a quarter-second burst, releasing 27 bullets.
Falling at a speed of 400 m.p.h., some of the lead bullets landed at
the Little Egg Harbor Township Intermediate School four miles away.
Eight rounds hit the roof; five that went through the ceilings of two
classrooms and a storage area were recovered.
Custodial workers were inside the school at the time, but no one was
injured.
Officials with the New Jersey Air National Guard held a community
meeting last night at the Little Egg Harbor Township administration
building to outline the report on the incident and discuss changes at
Warren Grove designed to prevent a similar accident. About two dozen
residents and elected officials attended, outnumbered by members of
the news media.
After the firing, Balzano immediately reported the discharge and
transmitted a "knock it off" call over his radio to cease all tactical
maneuvering, according to the report, released yesterday by the
Accident Investigation Board composed of Air Force and Air National
Guard officials.
"Were you trying to mark or something?" asked Maj. Kirk Pierce, an
instructor pilot in an accompanying F-16,during radio contact with
Balzano.
"Yes," said Balzano, identified in the report as MP (Mishap Pilot).
"That's what we talked about, don't do that," said Pierce.
"Yeah," said Balzano.
"That is why I covered that in brief," said Pierce.
Balzano had "pulled the trigger to laser mark his intended target...
," the report said. "At the same time, the MP lost awareness that the
aircraft's gun was selected and armed when he pulled the trigger."
Col. Kevin W. Bradley, president of the Accident Investigation Board,
said in the report that "using the same trigger for both laser marking
and firing the aircraft's gun significantly increases the risk of
human error and an unintentional gun discharge."
Outside Balzano's Riva, Md., home late yesterday, the pilot's
commanding officer, Col. Jeff Johnson, met briefly with reporters but
declined to comment.
No disciplinary action has been announced.
Balzano, who has more than 2,000 hours of flight time - 975 hours of
it in an F-16 - arrived home later and drove into his garage without
offering comment.
"The pilot had no intent of firing at the school - the firing was an
unfortunate and unintentional mistake," the National Guard Bureau said
in a statement released in Arlington, Va., last night.
The investigation report disclosed that three other unintentional F-16
firings have been reported this year at Defense Department ranges
during nighttime strafing passes. The ranges were not identified, but
officials at last night's meeting said one was in New York state and
two were in the West.
The Warren Grove range has been shut down since the incident. Brig.
Gen. Eugene Chojnacki, commander of the New Jersey Air National Guard,
said flights would resume there Dec. 21, but planes won't fire weapons
or drop ordnance until sometime after Jan. 1.
Col. Brian L. Webster, commander of the New Jersey Guard's 177th
Fighter Wing, told last night's community meeting that all aircraft
using the range in the future would be restricted from arming weapons
until the final leg of an attack pattern. He said flight routes would
be altered to create the maximum distance between the aircraft and the
range airspace boundary, to be sure weapons were pointed toward
unpopulated areas.
He also said software changes would be made to aircraft systems to
prevent further accidents.
Only F-16s with the software modification will be allowed to resume
air-to-ground gun training, Chojnacki said.
"We feel like the range restrictions we put in place are quite
sufficient to prevent another incident like this from ever happening
again," Webster said.
Joe Stout, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., which
makes the F-16 in Fort Worth, Texas, said the company had not been
notified of the report. The plane involved, produced in 1985, was
among the oldest of the F-16Cs, which typically are found in the Guard
and Reserve.
"Software changes on the F-16 are pretty routine," Stout said.
"Software is updated periodically... I can't speculate how difficult
or easy this is to do" without more knowledge of what changes are
required.
The new software will go into 600 F-16s around the country, all built
between 1983 and 1987, Webster said.
U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton said the Air National Guard apparently has done
"a thorough job in identifying the probable causes of the accident and
taken actions to remedy them."
U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg said the National Guard had briefed him
on the new safety measures and now needs "to make its case to the
community surrounding the range."
But he said closing the range might be needed "should anything like
this happen again."
Lautenberg and Webster noted the importance of the Warren Grove range
for training pilots. Webster described the range as "part of the
backbone of our forces. It's absolutely vital to the protection of our
troops."
In Little Egg Harbor Township, Michael Dupuis, president of the board
of education, said the incident proved to be "a major learning
experience for both the military and the people of the community.
"It's a shame that it took something like this for the military to
figure out that they've had a problem," he said. "I feel comfortable
that it is now finally going to be taken care of. However, I wish that
they had found out that it was poor design prior to any incidents
happening."
Charlene Smith, president of the Little Egg Harbor Township
Parent-Teacher Association, said the pilot should be reprimanded.
"I didn't expect them to come back and actually admit" pilot error,
she said. "I'm actually kind of glad that they did. That shows me they
really looked into this problem and really took the time to find out
what happened."
Smith said the school had received "a lot of damage. The bullets hit
seams in the roof," she said. "How are we going to fix it? Is the
military going to step up and take full responsibility for the damage
that's done to the school?
"This should never happen again. Nobody should have to walk out of the
house in fear that they're going to miss a target again. I think
safety precautions should be taken to the utmost now."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact staff writer Edward Colimore at 856-779-3833 or
ecolimore@phillynews.com. Inquirer staff writers Troy Graham and Todd
Mason and Charles Homans of the Inquirer Washington Bureau contributed
to this article.
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