Air Force News, news from Iraq - Air Force Times

ANG mistakenly drops dummy bomb on Tulsa

TULSA, Okla. — An Air National Guard jet mistakenly dropped a 22-pound non-explosive, practice bomb on an apartment complex, damaging the foundation but no one was injured, police said Friday.

The pilot thought he had dropped the BDU-33 bomb, equipped with a dummy warhead, over a field in Kansas during a routine training mission out of Tulsa on Thursday.

A couple returned home to the Canyon Creek apartment complex and found the ordnance partly buried in the foundation and the power knocked out, Tulsa Police Officer Jason Willingham said.

The F-16 was en route to Smokey Hill Gunnery Range in Salina, Kan., on a routine mission, according to a statement released Friday by the Oklahoma Air National Guard’s 138th Fighter Wing.

Shortly after takeoff, the training bomb inadvertently released from the aircraft, the guard statement said.

A safety investigation board has been convened and the investigation is ongoing, the statement said.

The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are investigating.

Willingham said the Air National Guard removed the ordnance from the scene.

A manager at the apartment complex, who declined to give his name, said it was back to business as usual at the complex Friday morning.

“God must love the people at Canyon Creek,” he said.