SCHOOL STRAFING CAUSED BY PILOT ERROR, POOR DESIGN: An Air National Guard F-16 pilot was trying to use a laser-targeting device when he accidentally squeezed the trigger too hard, firing several 20mm rounds that landed on a South Jersey school last month, the Air Force said Friday. The pilot had been warned against using the laser marker, located on the same trigger as the gun, before taking off on the training mission over the Warren Grove Weapons Range in Ocean County, N.J. Air Force investigators said that poor control design, the flight pattern, and lack of published safety procedures contributed to the accidental discharge of bullets. The aircraft's gun fired a quarter-second burst, releasing 27 bullets, some of which fell at the Little Egg Harbor Township Intermediate School four miles away. The school was unoccupied at the time, and no one was injured. Col. Kevin W. Bradley, president of the Accident Investigation Board, said in the report that "using the same trigger for both laser marking and firing the aircraft's gun significantly increases the risk of human error and an unintentional gun discharge." Joe Stout, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin, which produces the F-16, said the company had not been notified of the report. The plane involved, produced in the mid-1980s, was among the oldest of the F-16C's and typically found in the Guard and Reserve. "Software changes on the F-16 are pretty routine," Stout said. "Software is updated periodically ... I can't speculate how difficult or easy this is to do" without more knowledge of what changes are required. U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton said the Air National Guard apparently has done "a thorough job in identifying the probable causes of the accident and taken actions to remedy them. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
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