An F-16 fighter from the Oklahoma Air National Guard’s 138th Fighter Wing inadvertently dropped a 22-pound BDU-33 non-explosive dummy bomb on an apartment complex in Tulsa, Okla., March 13 while it was en route to a training range in Kansas to practice bombing runs. According to a March 15 report by NewsOK.com, the F-16 took off at around 3 p.m. local time from the Tulsa Air National Guard Base en route to the Smokey Hill Gunnery Range in Salina, Kan. Shortly thereafter the BDU-33, one of six such bombs carried by the airplane for the training mission, separated and crashed through the apartment complex, damaging the foundation and knocking out electrical power, but injuring no one. The pilot was reportedly unaware of the bomb’s release until his sixth bombing run when spotters did not see a sixth bomb hit the ground, the Tulsa World reported March 15. A safety investigation board has been convened.
Airmen basic rarely go on to become four-star generals, but one who did retired last week after a 42 year career that saw him rise from a lowly slick-sleeve to the head of one of the Air Force’s most important major commands.