Public Domain image- A Norwegian Royal Air Force F-16 mistakenly fires at a control tower with three officers inside
- The fighter jet was participating in a training exercise when the incident took place
- The three officers escaped unhurt
- A team had been tasked to investigate the incident
An F-16 jet fighter from the Norwegian Royal Air Force mistakenly fires at a control tower nearly killing three officers inside early this month, defense officials revealed on Monday, April 25.
The fighter jet was one of the two F-16s who were participating in an air assault drill practicing a mock attack on ground targets at the uninhabited Tarva island off the coast of Norway on April 13 when it hit the control tower on error.
The F-16 was armed with a 20 mm M61 Vulcan cannon, which is capable of firing 6,000 rounds per minute. Officials said the nearest target was 1,500 feet away from the control tower and an investigation into the incident had been launched immediately.
The three officers luckily survived the attack and were unhurt, an Air Force confirmed.
“It was close. You can imagine, of course, that they were shocked when this happened,” spokesman Stian Roen told NBC News.
Air Force officials did not say how many rounds hit the control tower, but explained the rounds were “cold bullets”, which means it had no explosives in them as normally used in training exercises.
The committee formed to probe into the nearly-fatal blunder is composed of six people including at least one F-16 pilot.
It’s not the first similar incident involving an Air Force F16 hitting on the wrong target during assault drills.
In 2009, an F-16 also strafed the same control tower by mistake. At that time, at least one round penetrated the structure.
No one was injured in the incident but it took two years for the Air Force to investigate.
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