F-16 fires on school in Jersey

F-16 strafes school in Jersey
8 rounds hit building during training flight
Friday, November 05, 2004
BY MARYANN SPOTO AND WAYNE WOOLLEY
Star-Ledger Staff
An Air National Guard fighter jet on a training mission fired eight high-powered cannon rounds through the roof of an Ocean County elementary school Wednesday night. At least six of the 2-inch-long projectiles landed in empty classrooms.

Although the Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School was closed, four custodians were working inside the one-story brick building when the rounds landed just after 10 p.m., officials said. None of the workers was injured.


The pilot of the single-seat F-16 was preparing for target practice at the nearby Warren Grove Gunnery Range when the aircraft's 20mm cannon accidentally discharged, firing 25 rounds in rapid succession, said Col. Brian Webster, commander of the 177th Fighter Wing of the New Jersey Air Guard.

The plane was between three and 3 1/2 miles away from the school and flying at 7,000 feet when the shots were fired. It was not clear how fast the plane was traveling. Because the bullets landed directly on top of the school, it is possible the jet was climbing and the bullets traveled in an arc before landing, Webster said.

"We know a gun fired. We don't know why it fired," Webster said yesterday. "The pilot was flying along, and the gun discharged."

The jet was "setting up to do high-angle strafes" when its weapon fired, Webster said. The gun, an M61-A1 Vulcan, is mounted on the aircraft's left wing. Although the gun is capable of firing rounds that explode on impact, the rounds used for training are lead slugs.

Little Egg Harbor Police Chief Mark Siino said the projectiles that pierced the building tore through ceiling tiles and went through at least one desk and would have killed anyone in their path.

Gayle DePrete, a teacher's assistant at the school, said chaos would have reigned had the accident occurred during school hours.

"It would have been horrendous," she said. "The trauma the kids would have went through. ... They would have thought it was bin Laden or something."

Schools in New Jersey were closed yesterday and today because of a statewide teachers convention in Atlantic City.

Mike Dupuis, president of the Little Egg Harbor Township Board of Education, said yesterday that officials have yet to determine a dollar figure to repair the damage. However, he said, the school will reopen Monday as scheduled.

Military officials said they have launched an investigation.

Webster declined to identify the pilot, a member of the 113th Fighter Wing of the District of Columbia Air National Guard. The pilot returned the plane to its home base at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland after the shooting. Webster refused to say what disciplinary charges the pilot could face. He also could not say at what point military officials realized there had been an accident.

Military officials closed the Warren Grove range until the investigation is complete.

The 2,600-acre range, which straddles Ocean and Burlington counties, has been used for military target practice since World War II and exclusively by Air Guard units from the East Coast in recent years.

There have been previous incidents involving aircraft training at the range. In 2002, a New Jersey Air National Guard F-16 crashed near the Garden State Parkway after the pilot lost control during maneuvers over the range. The pilot, Maj. Robert G. McNally, ejected safely. Errant practice bombs sparked a forest fire that burned 11,000 acres of pinelands in 1999 and 1,600 acres in 2002. And in 1992, a Pennsylvania Air Guard A-10 crash landed near the range.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, nearly 2,000 jet and helicopter sorties are flown over the range each year.

Many of the maneuvers over the range take place during the day.

Teachers in Little Egg Harbor say students have grown accustomed to explosions and the roar of supersonic jets.

Nora Klouser, who teaches fourth grade at the intermediate school, said the building's proximity to the range had never been an issue with the staff. Now it is.

"With all we have to be concerned about working in a school, this is just one more thing we have to think about," she said.

Pete Barone, who teaches at Mitchell School, which is near the intermediate school, said he has long worried about accidents involving the low-flying jets.

"These things are very close and they are very low," he said. "If something happened, it could be very bad."

Lt. Col. Roberta Niedt, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey National Guard, said Wednesday's incident will be fully investigated.

"The National Guard takes this situation very seriously," Niedt said. "The safety of our people and the surrounding communities are our foremost concern."

Webster, the New Jersey Air Guard colonel, said the jet whose bullets hit the school was flying in tandem with another F-16 from the same unit.

Officials were able to account for the eight rounds that pierced the roof of the school and five others that landed in the parking lot. They could not find the impact area for the other rounds that were fired, said Siino, the police chief.

Although four custodians were working in the building, only one was working in the wing of the building where the rounds landed.

Siino said the custodian heard what sounded like "something running on the roof" and called the police. The officers who initially investigated Wednesday night found nothing amiss. School officials who arrived at the building yesterday discovered the damage inside the classrooms.

About 1,600 students in grades 3 to 6 attend the intermediate school, located just east of the Garden State Parkway.

The shooting left some local officials demanding answers.

"The mayor and council definitely are quite concerned, and we will follow the investigation quite closely," Little Egg Township Administrator Raymond Urezzio said. "It is a grave concern, but we want to get the facts first."

Brian Farreny, a parent of two children who attend the school, said he was aware there was a target range nearby but had never been concerned about it.

"I never really thought it was a possibility that they could make this kind of mistake," he said. "I mean they fly flight simulators before they even go up in the air, so I never even thought it was possible. But it worries me now that it could happen."



Staff writers Russell Ben-Ali, Rudy Larini, Bev McCarron and Judy Peet contributed to this report.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-18/109964233450600.xml

Thank God nobody was hurt and that it didn't happen at a time that there were kids in the school.