Maro
11-04-2004, 06:31 PM
Strewth! lucky it was at nighr
US fighter jet fires on school
November 5, 2004 - 11:40AM
A National Guard F-16 fighter jet on a night training mission strafed a New Jersey elementary school with 25 rounds of ammunition, authorities said. No one was injured.
The incident damaged Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School shortly after 11pm on Wednesday.
The school was empty, apart from a custodian, who called police after hearing what sounded like someone running across the roof.
Police Chief Mark Siino said officers noticed punctures in the roof. Ceiling tiles had fallen into classrooms, and there were scratch marks in the asphalt outside.
The pilot of the single-seat jet was supposed to fire at a target on the ground five and a half kilometres away from the school, said Colonel Brian Webster, commander of the 177th Fighter Wing of the New Jersey Air National Guard. He does not know how the exercise led to the school getting shot up.
The plane was 7000 feet (2100m) in the air when the shots were fired. The gun, an M61-A1 Vulcan cannon, is located in the plane's left wing. It fires 2-inch-long bullets that are made of lead and do not explode, said Webster.
"The National Guard takes this situation very seriously," said Lieutenant Colonel Roberta Niedt, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. "The safety of our people and the surrounding communities are our foremost concern."
Schools in New Jersey were closed on Thursday because of a teachers convention.
Webster would not identify the pilot or detail possible disciplinary measures.
Mike Dupuis, president of the township's Board of Education, said school workers are mindful that the firing range is nearby.
"Being so close to the range, that's always in the back of our minds. It is very scary. I have children in that school and relatives that work there," he said.
The range has been used by the military since the end of World War II, long before the area of south New Jersey was developed. :shocking
US fighter jet fires on school
November 5, 2004 - 11:40AM
A National Guard F-16 fighter jet on a night training mission strafed a New Jersey elementary school with 25 rounds of ammunition, authorities said. No one was injured.
The incident damaged Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School shortly after 11pm on Wednesday.
The school was empty, apart from a custodian, who called police after hearing what sounded like someone running across the roof.
Police Chief Mark Siino said officers noticed punctures in the roof. Ceiling tiles had fallen into classrooms, and there were scratch marks in the asphalt outside.
The pilot of the single-seat jet was supposed to fire at a target on the ground five and a half kilometres away from the school, said Colonel Brian Webster, commander of the 177th Fighter Wing of the New Jersey Air National Guard. He does not know how the exercise led to the school getting shot up.
The plane was 7000 feet (2100m) in the air when the shots were fired. The gun, an M61-A1 Vulcan cannon, is located in the plane's left wing. It fires 2-inch-long bullets that are made of lead and do not explode, said Webster.
"The National Guard takes this situation very seriously," said Lieutenant Colonel Roberta Niedt, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. "The safety of our people and the surrounding communities are our foremost concern."
Schools in New Jersey were closed on Thursday because of a teachers convention.
Webster would not identify the pilot or detail possible disciplinary measures.
Mike Dupuis, president of the township's Board of Education, said school workers are mindful that the firing range is nearby.
"Being so close to the range, that's always in the back of our minds. It is very scary. I have children in that school and relatives that work there," he said.
The range has been used by the military since the end of World War II, long before the area of south New Jersey was developed. :shocking