Fighter Jet Accidentally ‘Bombs’ National Forest

Oops. A fighter jet from the Selfridge Air National Guard Base in suburban Detroit accidentally “bombed” the Huron Manistee National Forest in northern Michigan last month, according to media reports. The non-lethal training bombs and a missile produced plumes of smoke but didn’t cause any damage or injuries, authorities said.

The incident occurred over Oscoda County, located in Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula, around 9 a.m. on Oct. 25. The munitions fell from the plane near Luzerne as it headed for a training exercise at Camp Grayling, located about 216 miles northwest of Harrison Township-based Selfridge.

This kind of thing almost never happens, according to Lt. Col. Matthew Trumble, director of the Camp Grayling Air Gunnery Range. Blaming a mechanical failure, Trumble said such occurrences are “rare.”

“The phase of the flight they were in was prior to arriving to the range, so the operating procedure for that would be to have all weapon systems saved-up, so there wouldn't even be any switches, as it were, that were hot at that point,” Trumble told WWTV and WPBN. “That's why we suspect it was most likely mechanical fault."

The munitions that slipped off the A-10 Thunderbolt II fighter jet produce smoke so pilots know they’ve hit their targets. The bomb dummy units, as they’re called, were recovered Sunday in the Mio Ranger District of the forest.

If the bombs had fallen somewhere else, the heat-producing bombs could have been more dangerous, according to Lt. Col. Dawn Dancer, a spokeswoman for the Michigan National Guard. “So if somebody got to them when they were first dropped, potentially it could burn them,” Dancer told The Detroit News.

Dancer said the Michigan National Guard is investigating the accidental release of the bombs and missile.

The area where the bombs fell is remote, about 10 miles from any residential property. Kate Saim, spokeswoman for the Huron Manistee Forest, told The Detroit News she warned hunters to be on the lookout for munitions.

“We offered our assistance but we don’t have anybody trained to look for munitions like that so we left it to the experts,” Saim said.

Photo of A-10 Thunderbolt II fighter jet via Public Domain