A major "Oops" moment

[VladTepes]

A technician accidentally triggered an F-16's cannon and blew up another F-16 in Belgium

Yep, you read that right.

The Belgian Air Force is investigating how a technician servicing an F-16 jet fighter triggered its 20mm Vulcan cannon and destroyed another F-16 at the Florennes airfield.





Full article and more photos:
PHOTOS: A technician accidentally triggered an F-16's cannon and blew up another F-16 in Belgium | Business Insider

[Eevo]

why was it left loaded?

[cripesamighty]

Was being prepped to go out on a training sortie. Would have needed live rounds if it was a gunnery exercise.

[Bigbjorn]

Officer, I was only cleaning it and didn't know it was loaded.

or

I was climbing through a fence and snagged the trigger on a barb and shot my mother-in-law in the homestead 400 yards away.

[4bee]

No wuckin' furries, just claim it on Wesfarmers Business, Belgium.

[DiscoMick]

Very effective cannon. Think of it as capability testing.

[donh54]

In all my military training, lesson Number One was "Check Safe!"

Regarding the loaded state, most modern fighters apparently are trimmed to allow for a full ammo load in the cannons. Trim is then adjusted as ammo and fuel are used. Forget exactly where I read that, but it was written by someone who should know - possibly a US Navy pilot, I've read a few books by some of them.

[austastar]

Hi,
Some where in my training on aerial cameras was a warning on test running the camera when the aircraft (Canberra) was loaded with bombs.
Bomb release triggered the camera and vice versa.
Seemed crazy at the time, but I didn't get hands on experience.
I regularly tested gun sight cameras in loaded Sabres and Mirage fighters without that worry.
A story from RAAF Williamstown told of a Mirage being guided to a stop on the flightline and two missiles launching past the ground crew standing in front of it on shutdown.
Would have been in the early 60s.
Cheers