"It is understood that maintenance staff working on an F-16 parked in a hangar near the control tower accidentally fired a volley of shots."

I'd call that a major league ND. The plane inside the hangar shot up one parked outside.

LOTS of photos on the link.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/...y-destroyed-13406979

F-16 jet utterly destroyed in £35million airbase gaffe after another fighter plane accidentally opens fire on it

One person was hospitalised with hearing damage after the loud explosion at the Belgian air base in Florennes

By Dave Burke
15:50, 12 OCT 2018
UPDATED 23:26, 12 OCT 2018

A £35million fighter jet may has been destroyed and a second jet riddled with bullets when someone in a parked F-16 accidentally opened fire.

The F-16 Falcon jet - which was filled with 10,000 litres of kerosine - exploded as a result of the bullets' impact, according to reports in Belgium.


A second adjacent F-16 was damaged in the incident, which happened at the Florennes air base, 60 miles south of Brussels.

A large plume of black smoke was seen coming from the air base as a result of the explosion, and a rescue operation was launched.

The Belgian Air Force said that the plane had burned during maintenance work.

Two technicians working on the plane are understood to have been hurt.

In a statement to broadcaster RTL Info, defence trade union chief Boris Morenville said: "We can assume that there has been a human error or a technical fault.

"In any case, we have not been informed about an intentional act."

However, the Belgian news outlet Sudinfo reports: "An F-16 parked on the tarmac of the Florennes military base was the target of shooting: a technician accidentally opened fire from another plane! An F-16 caught fire and is completely destroyed."

It is understood that maintenance staff working on an F-16 parked in a hangar near the control tower accidentally fired a volley of shots.

The bullets - shot from 20mm Gatling guns with six cannons capable of firing 6,000 shots per minute - hit the two aircraft of the same type which just happened to be parked directly in a its line of sight.

A technician who was close to the firing source was reportedly hospitalized suffering from tinnitus.

A federal inquiry has been launched into the explosion, it was announced.

Four more and that tech makes ace!

a) He's not going to live that one down.

b) That article must have been written by a 3-yr old. Don't they teach basic writing skills in 'journalism' school anymore (and, yes, I'm allowing for the fact it may have been translated from French)?

We make fun of France for their military defeats and surrenders, but if you really look at history, they went through some tough fighting before doing so. Belgium got their asses rolled right over twice in the 20th century without even putting up a fight. Nothing has happened since to change my mind.

quote:

Originally posted by Loswsmith:
Four more and that tech makes ace!

Wonder if they'll paint a kill marking on his toolbox?

(Or more likely on his discharge papers.)

Lol, gotta love people not complying with the MX checklists, bypassing safeties and such.

How do you say ”Oops, my bad...” in Dutch?

quote:

Originally posted by Hound Dog:
b) That article must have been written by a 3-yr old. Don't they teach basic writing skills in 'journalism' school anymore (and, yes, I'm allowing for the fact it may have been translated from French)?

It's from the Mirror, 'nuff said

How is an aircraft under maintenance even hot to begin with ? That sounds like a major clusterfuck all the way around.

a bit of bondo and that will buff right out

yeah, I don't think 'oops' as an entry on the maintenance log is going to clean that one up

Agreed. maintenance officers azz should be in the ringer...

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:
How is an aircraft under maintenance even hot to begin with ? That sounds like a major clusterfuck all the way around.

"Just don't press the red button".

I thought there was an interlock that prevented the guns from firing if the engine was off and wheels down.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
I thought there was an interlock that prevented the guns from firing if the engine was off and wheels down.

Of course all those systems need to be tested on the ground, with the engines off and the wheels down... So there are ways it can be done so MX can check the operation of the systems.

In the Navy they called them R&C checks and could over-ride all of them - of course you take all the missiles, bullets, bombs, and flares OFF the plane first and usually have some test equipment hooked up, so MX can press the buttons and the plane goes through the motions.

So obviously this clown in the Belgian AF tripped some of the interlocks to make this all happen.

Career limiting move

quote:

Originally posted by CQB60:
Agreed. maintenance officers azz should be in the ringer...

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:
How is an aircraft under maintenance even hot to begin with ? That sounds like a major clusterfuck all the way around.

I know there is a procedure for firing the gun on the ground to zero but my understanding is that it takes a lot of steps to make that work.

new job.. cleaning the shitters after taco night!!

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:
How do you say ”Oops, my bad...” in Dutch?

Florennes is in Wallonie, the French-speaking part of Belgium.

Guess next time he'll check the chamber to make sure it's empty..

quote:

Originally posted by HayesGreener:
I know there is a procedure for firing the gun on the ground to zero but my understanding is that it takes a lot of steps to make that work.

Obviously not ENOUGH steps.