The Air National Guard warplane, flying a night training mission out of Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, fired a burst of 27 rounds from its 20-millimeter cannon shortly before 10:15 p.m. as it streaked over Little Egg Harbor Township, 20 miles north of Atlantic City, New Jersey military officials said last night.
Col. Brian Webster, commander of the 177th Fighter Wing of the New Jersey Air National Guard, said that the pilot, who was not identified, fired the cannon inadvertently just as he turned into a dive to strafe a target at the Warren Grove firing range in Ocean County, a sprawling military reservation in the Pine Barrens that has been used for bombing and strafing practice since World War II.
Could the local authorities be investigating also? Seems like it has got to be a crime to shoot up a school. Could the FAA get involved also, take the pilot’s licencse, or is it hands-off anything done by a military plane in civilian airspace?
If I was a parent of a child at that school, I’d prefer that the pilot be arrested by the local authorities and that the military would be saying “pretty please could we make bail for our guy”, rather than having a purely military investigation with pilot’s name withheld.
Is that relevant? If the military are using a firing range, shouldn’t they keep their activities within the range? And if they can’t, either someone is being careless, or the range is too small for its purpose.
(The same would apply to a civilian firing range: if build my house on land that I own next to the firing range, they have duty not to accidentally – or deliberately – shoot at my house.)
So what? My house was here before my neighbor’s. Does that mean I can burn his down without consequence? Am I missing some legal subtlety that lets the first one in an area run roughshod over newcomers?
If the newcomers moved in next to a firing range and complained about the noise, that would be one thing. But that doesn’t seem to be the case here.
I agree they should be able to confine their activities to the range proper, but realistically, accidents (such as this) happen. Whoever decided to put the school there presumably did so understanding the risks. The pilot may have been negligent, to be sure, but it could just as easily have been an unforseen equipment malfuntion. Calling for the arrest of the pilot at this stage, before any meaningful information has been released is a stupid ioverreaction, IMO.
Maybe if the neighbors were complaining about noise or other effects of the base that they should have been aware of because the existence of the base. But getting shot at? Shouldn’t have built a school where we might hit it?
The FAA has no jurisdiction whatsoever over military aircraft, so it could not pull the pilot’s license, as suggested by the OP.
I’m sure there is a better answer that the lawyers will chime in with briefly, but the Constitution says that Congress shall establish rules for the conduct of our armed forces, and Congress has done so by creating the Uniform Code of Military Justice. After an investigation, such a serious matter is quite likely to be prosecuted under the UCMJ.
I do understand how local authorities would have a strong primary claim to investigate the matter, seeing as how the military justice system is kicking in right now, and that Federal laws governing the conduct of military personnel are, as a rule of thumb, a hell of a lot stricter than laws that relate to civilians. I do not know that local authorities would be prohibited from prosecuting the pilot, I simply question the wisdom of local authorities stepping in at the outset.
Folks will take a more-or-less “no harm, no foul” approach to this. The USAF will pay for whatever damages were done to the school; the nature of the pilot’s error will be given a summary investigation, just so they can say they did it; the pilot will get some sort of minor-to-medium-sized demerit; and everyone will soon forget all about it, except some of the school’s students, who will continue to fantasize about the possibility of future accidents, like maybe a MOAB flattening the building, giving them an extended Summer vacation.
sure- it’s a dramatic news story–a jet strafing a civilian building.But how is this different that a local policeman accidently firing his pistol during training?
If a cop accidently puts a bullet in a school, and kills somebody–it’s big news.But if no injuries result, then , like most accidents, people will let it slip by.
The individual pilot who accidently pressed the trigger a few seconds too early should be discharged (dishonorably?)–as a lesson to future trainees that there are some accidents that are totally unnacceptable.
Accidents happen.But accidents involving weapons can be fatal.
Just guessing, but I would say there were probably schools in New Jersey **before[\b] there were Air Force bases.
I recall reading about some Revolutionary War meetings held in a schoolhouse in New Jersey. I don’t think there were and Air Force bases there at the time, as the airplane wasn’t invented for 125 years later!
But what you’re getting at is tantamount to saying that all the schools currently in New Jersey were built before all the Air Force Bases.
I saw the OP’s article, as well, and it said that the base was built in an area of South Jersey that was very undeveloped at the time. So the AFB was definitely there first.
And I get what Q.E.D. is saying. I don’t think it excuses any behavior, but it puts things in a slightly different light once you add that fact to the situation. After all, the people who developed the surrounding community should have realized that they were accepting certain risks by hemming in a military test range.
You would have to agree that things would seem quite different if, instead, you knew that the USAF had decided to squeeze a firing range right in the midst of some established subdivisions. If they then proceeded to shoot up a school, you’ve got to admit that the story would have a different ring to it.
Frankly, any pilot whose aim is three miles off should be fired just for plain incompetence. I sure don’t want him shooting off the weapons that my tax money has paid for!
They say we have ‘smart bombs’ nowdays. If he had had one aboard, would it have been smarter than this pilot?
