It's not immediately clear what caused an Oceana-based jet to drop a bomb about one mile east of its target at a Florida bombing range Tuesday, starting a forest fire, a Navy spokesman said Thursday.
The bomb fell just as the squadron was wrapping up a training exercise, said Lt. Cmdr. Dave Nunnally of Naval Air Force Atlantic. The incident could have been caused by a number of things and is under investigation, he added.
Nunnally said he doesn't know how long the investigation will take. The main thing, he said, is "to figure out the cause so we can prevent it from happening again."
As for the pilot who dropped the bomb, Nunnally said his or her status will be determined once the investigation is complete.
U.S. Forest Service firefighters spent Thursday extinguishing the last of the hot spots in the 250-acre burn outside the Pinecastle target range, about 60 miles northwest of Orlando.
No one was killed or injured during the bombing, which happened during a training mission in a swampy, uninhabited area at about 1:45 p.m. Tuesday. An F/A-18 Super Hornet released a 500-pound laser-guided bomb that landed about one mile east of Pinecastle in the Ocala
National Forest, said Miriam Gallet, spokeswoman for Jacksonville Naval Air Station.
The plane is part of VFA-213, the "Fighting Blacklions." The squadron is part of Carrier Air Wing 8, which is currently
embarked aboard the carrier Theodore Roosevelt. On Thursday, the jets were on their way back to Norfolk.
Gallet said pilots drop an average of 2,062 inert bombs and 400 live bombs a year at the Florida range. While inert bombs have landed outside the range before, she said this was the first time a live bomb had done so since it opened in 1951.
Matthew Jones, (757) 446-2949, matthew.jones@pilotonline.com
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I'm all for the Navy
I'm all for the Navy training and doing whatever they need to in order to be prepared for War. However, this range isn't in the middle of nowhere as this article and some posts suggest. "It is hardley a swampy inihabited area". People ride ATVs, Jeeps and fish in that area on a daily basis. This bomb landed about 3 miles from SR19, a very main road. I happened to be in that part of the forest riding off road vehicles all the time. The forest is full of people doing various recreational activites all the time and the area around the range is used a great deal by people. The Navy is very lucky no one was killed. I was actually there today and rode right up to the bomb site to check it out. I was asked politely to find another place to ride but it was scary to think that that bomb could have dropped right on top of anyone out there. A couple of mile east or on the weekend and this would have been devastating
I still support the range and the Navy but I hope they figure out the malfunction and take appropraite measures to prevent this from happening again. I realize errors happen, especailly when training, but it is an eye opener when it happens in your backyard.