# Glad Its a Rental



## Big Don (Jul 15, 2008)

*Glad It&#8217;s a Rental*


Excerpted from Navy Safety Center


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Whoa! 30 MM rounds make BIG holes. I hope they paid for the insurance...


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## Sukerkin (Jul 16, 2008)

Blimey - lucky chaps.  Is it normal to go driving about a live-fire air-to-ground target range in the dead of night by the way? :angel:


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## terryl965 (Jul 16, 2008)

OK I bet the rental company had a hard time explaining.


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## dart68 (Jul 16, 2008)

Big Don said:


> *Glad Its a Rental*
> 
> 
> Excerpted from Navy Safety Center
> ...


 
Big holes for sure!  A small clarification..the gatlin gun in an F-16 shoots 20mm rounds.  The one in the Warthog shoots 30mm.  Wouldn't want to be anywhere near anything getting shot with either!


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## chinto (Aug 1, 2008)

dart68 said:


> Big holes for sure!  A small clarification..the gatlin gun in an F-16 shoots 20mm rounds.  The one in the Warthog shoots 30mm.  Wouldn't want to be anywhere near anything getting shot with either!


yep 6000 rpm of 20MM or 4000 rpm 30mm.. both equal very dead or wish you were!


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## MA-Caver (Aug 1, 2008)

1. They were lucky to get out of the Suburban alive.
2. They were lucky to get out of the Suburban alive.
3. They were lucky it was a big Suburban and thus a larger target and further away (relatively) from the point of impact of the incoming rounds as most hit the rear of the vehicle. 
4. They were lucky that the pilot didn't target the forward cab of the vehicle or that the SUV had been moving thus making it (somewhat) harder to hit that area. 
5. They were lucky to get out of the Suburban alive. 


6. yeah, they were lucky it was a rental.


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## jkembry (Aug 1, 2008)

Hmmm...I wonder if rental insurance covers this?


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## MA-Caver (Aug 1, 2008)

Sukerkin said:


> Blimey - lucky chaps.  Is it normal to go driving about a live-fire air-to-ground target range in the dead of night by the way? :angel:





> _*Update*: According to an Air Force news release, investigators determined that this *mishap was due to pilot error*. "The cause of the accident was the failure of the pilot to positively identify the intended target during the nighttime, close air support training sortie," the news release said. The F-16 pilot had been wearing night-vision goggles while firing the jet's 20 millimeter canon. He briefly lost sight of the target area as rolled and began the strafing run, then misidentified the SUV as the target, which was actually 1.5 miles away. *The two soldiers in the SUV were part of a different training project on the range*._


Pilot error. I dunno if the pilot had been a better shot if I'd want to be referred to as a "mishap". Takes all the humanity out of the incident doesn't it? 

Cruising around the north western deserts of Utah one has to be very aware of signs posting military reservations and training areas. A friend was on his dirt bike just having fun rolling around here and there when he crossed through a hole in a fence line (no signage as he was off the main dirt road by a couple of miles)... curious he just cruised on in... he says about 20 minutes later he was face to face with a ground hugging Apache helicopter and it's forward guns were trained right on him. He realized that he crossed into restricted area and the heli was basically telling him he had X number of minutes to get the hell out or become a "mishap". He could see the pilot grimly gesturing to him to go in the opposite direction. Oddly no words were spoken by the pilot from the heli's loudspeaker. 
He turned around and followed his tracks (that should've been a clue) back to the hole in the fence with the heli right behind him following his every move, if he jigged left so did the heli, right for rights ... always maintaining the same distance, kept looking over his shoulder and the apache was never more than 100 feet behind him. The heli stopped at the fence line and hovered til he was through and rode out of sight... says that he drove on for a couple of miles til he got to the dirt road and then slowed and fell off his bike in complete break down. Took him an hour to compose himself (read: stop shaking) to get back on his bike and back to his vehicle/trailer and just go home. 
Lesson... DON'T cross fence lines just out of curiosity.


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