The Air Drive is investigating how a 300-gallon gas tank fell from an F-16 Preventing Falcon right into a Florida neighborhood Tuesday.
The tank belonging to an F-16 assigned to the 96th Check Wing at Eglin Air Drive Base landed in a residential space in close by Niceville at about 11 a.m. native time, a base spokesperson mentioned. No one was killed or injured, and no property harm was initially reported, the spokesperson mentioned.
However native media mentioned Tuesday that jet gas may very well be smelled within the space, and a number of neighbors mentioned gas had seeped into their yards.
Eglin flew a small drone over the gas tank’s affect space Wednesday to survey the location, and the bottom is engaged on eradicating the tank and cleansing up the world.
The 96th Check Wing flies F-16s as a part of its mission to check and consider the Air Drive’s air-delivered weapons, navigation and steerage programs, command and management programs and different programs.
The F-16 typically carries a pair of exterior gas tanks that every weigh 2,400 kilos. Together with the fighter’s inside tank, the exterior tanks convey the F-16′s whole gas capability to about 12,000 kilos.
Mid Bay Information, an area information publication, reported Tuesday the gas pod was “shredded wreckage” in a resident’s driveway. The affect website was a couple of hundred yards from an elementary college.
“Solely by the grace of God, it landed between two homes,” Niceville Metropolis Supervisor David Deitch instructed the outlet.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Protection Information. He beforehand lined management and personnel points at Air Drive Occasions, and the Pentagon, particular operations and air warfare at Navy.com. He has traveled to the Center East to cowl U.S. Air Drive operations.
