F-16 Strafes School - Followup

Just as we all suspected. The Air Force (as reported in the Newark
Star-Ledger this morning) now admits that the pilot accidentally hit his
trigger button on the stick while changing attack configurations. Guns were
hot at the time. As every pilot with a yoke-mounted PTT switch already
knew, this was the "unknown cause of the gun discharge". Seems a
quarter-second burst (just a quick "Oops!") is pretty close to the 27 rounds
on the Vulcan.
--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)


Air Force cites pilot error in firing on school
Probe also blames the design of trigger controls, leading to ban on strafing
Saturday, December 18, 2004
BY MARYANN SPOTO
Star-Ledger Staff

An Air Force investigation has determined that pilot error and poorly
designed firing controls on his fighter jet caused the accidental shooting
of Little Egg Harbor Elementary School last month, military officials said
yesterday.

In response, the military has prohibited strafing by pilots using the type
of F-16C aircraft involved in the shooting near the Warren Grove Gunnery
Range until changes in the jet's computer operating system are made,
according to the results of a military investigation into the incident
released yesterday.

The strafing prohibition has been enacted nationwide and affects 600 F-16Cs
built by Lockheed- Martin between 1983 and 1987, officials said last night.

The pilot of the single-seat F- 16C, identified as 33-year-old Maj. Roberto
Balzano of the 113th Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard based in
Washington, D.C., still could face disciplinary action, although the report
said that decision will be left to his commanding officer.

The report concluded that Balzano, who has logged more than 2,000 hours of
flying time, squeezed too hard on the firing trigger, causing the 20mm
cannon to spit out 27 rounds of inert ammunition in a quarter-second during
the Nov. 3 night training mission. Eight of those rounds hit the school and
surrounding ground. Although four custodians were in the school at the time,
no one was injured.

At Balzano's house in a subdivision of single-family homes in Riva, Md.,
about 30 miles outside Washington D.C., his wife declined to comment
yesterday. Late in the afternoon two National Guard officers arrived and
went into the house, and a short time later Balzano drove up and into his
garage. He closed the door without commenting.

One of the guard officers, Col. Jeff Johnson, emerged from the house and
said "Rob and his family will have no comment." He said neither he nor
Balzano had seen the report.

Balzano, referred to throughout the report as the "mishap pilot," had flown
17 training missions in the previous three months, the report said.

"The pilot had no intent of firing at the school -- the firing was an
unfortunate and unintentional mistake," military officials said in a release
accompanying the report.

"Unfortunately, the (pilot) forgot that his aircraft's air-to-ground gun
mode was selected and armed, ready to fire," Col. Kevin W. Bradley of the
New York Air National Guard, president of the Accident Investigation Board,
wrote in the report.

In that F-16C, the flight control stick has a trigger that, if squeezed
lightly, emits a laser marker to illuminate a target, and when squeezed
harder, fires ammunition. Balzano, who was wearing night vision goggles on
an evening with low light from the moon, had intended to illuminate the
target area, but squeezed too hard on the trigger.

Changes will be made to the computer controls of that F-16C model to move
the laser-marking capability to another control switch.

At their training briefing at Andrews Air Force Base before the sortie,
Balzano's instructor pilot, Maj. Kirk Pierce, had warned Balzano not to use
the laser marker while the master switch was in the armed position because
of the chance for an unintentional firing, the report said. Pierce was in a
second plane at Balzano's wing when the incident occurred.
Balzano, with the 121st Fighter Squadron, declined to appear before the
Accident Investigation Board, according to the report.

Three other accidental shootings were reported this year because of this
trigger confusion, the report said. None had resulted in any damage. Because
of these misfirings, military officials had issued e-mail messages and
verbal warnings about the possible problem. And Air Force instructions
prohibit pilots from squeezing the trigger until they intend to fire the
gun, a rule that was in effect at the time of the Little Egg Harbor
incident.

Bradley also faulted procedures at Warren Grove, a 9,400-acre range that
straddles Ocean and Burlington counties, which allowed pilots to fly in the
airspace with their weapons ready to fire. Despite that allowance, many
F-16C pilots often kept their weapons in a mode that would prevent them from
firing until approaching their target. But that practice came from word of
mouth, not by any official written range procedures, Bradley said in the
report.

Col. Brian Webster, commander of the Air National Guard's 177th Fighter
Wing, which operates the range, has said pilots will now be required to
disarm their aircraft until approaching their targets. Also, the range has
adopted new flight paths to ensure that pilots shoot away from populated
areas.

In Little Egg Harbor last night, a dozen area residents turned out for a
hastily called meeting on the investigation. Military personnel and members
of the press outnumbered the residents.

Afterward, Little Egg Harbor Mayor Raymond Gormley said he was comfortable
with the findings.
"For us to be the lead of changing the way of thinking throughout the entire
country is something of an honor," he said. "I'm very pleased they changed
the flight pattern."

Bass River Mayor Richard Bethea said he was confident the shooting would be
ruled an accident. "The pilot had an error, he fessed up immediately, and
they put the investigation into the (flight) pattern. I knew it had to be an
accident of one kind from the beginning. I feel bad for the pilot. It was a
mistake."

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, (D-N.J.), who was briefed yesterday by military
officials, stressed the importance of the range to military preparedness,
but said the final decision about its future would have to come from the
surrounding community.

"The bottom line is that we must be certain that all that can be done to
protect the community is in place," he said in a prepared statement. "Should
anything like this happen again, every option, including closing the
facility, must be on the table. In the final analysis, the safety of people
on the ground that live near the range must be the top priority."