Missiles Fall Off Jet After Iraq/ISIS Bombing Mission For The Second Time

When missiles fall of a jet on accident, you would hope that such an incident is a one-time occurrence. Unfortunately, this latest mishap came just two weeks after another set of missiles fell of a jet and flattened several houses.

In a related report by the Inquisitr, the threat of Russia’s nuclear weapons has the U.S. military considering sending F-22 Raptor squadrons into Europe in order to counter the actions of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

A British Royal Air Force (RAF) official has confirmed that two missiles fell off an RAF Tornado fighter jet as it landed at a base in Cyprus. It is believed the poor visibility in the region may have contributed to the accident. Assuming the fighter jet landed at the wrong angle, it is possible the missiles disengaged from their mounting brackets and simply fell off.

“We can confirm that during a landing of an RAF Tornado GR4 in poor weather at RAF Akrotiri, two missiles became detached from the aircraft,” the RAF official told the Daily Mail. “The [Ministry Of Defense] is in the process of recovering the missiles and an investigation as to the cause of the incident is under way.”

Eight RAF Tornado fighter jets are stationed at RAF Akrotiri, which is one of two British military bases on Cyprus. According to HNGN, the official from the RAF also stated that the pieces of the missiles were already being retrieved from the runway.

“Put it this way, they won’t be used again,” he said.

While the missiles were broken up into pieces after falling off the aircraft, they did not detonate because the £105,000 Brimstone missiles are designed so that the pilot must manually press an electronic trigger in order to arm the missiles to explode. The Brimstone missiles are considered an ideal weapon in the fight against ISIS in Iraq since they can hit a moving vehicle from seven miles away.

Unfortunately, this was not the first anti-ISIS mission to have missiles fall off a jet. Following a “technical issue,” a single missile fell from a Sukhoi jet and accidentally bombed a residential neighbourhood in Baghdad, killing at least seven people.

“One of the bombs became stuck because of a technical problem, and during its (the aircraft’s) return to base it fell on three houses in Baghdad Jadida,” Iraqi security spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan said about the accident.

The good news is that when the British missiles fell off their jet, no one was killed or injured.

[Image via Wikimedia Commons]