Oops ! - Spanish Eurofighter launches AMRAAM by mistake !

[Tiger331]

 

Hi Folks,

 

Some 'Heat and Light' (pardon the pun) generated locally with the news here in Estonia that a Spanish Eurofighter, operating out of Lithuania on a NATO Baltic Air Policing mission, accidentally launched an AMRAAM over Estonian territory yesterday afternoon. Given that the NATO Air Policing mission calls for live missiles to be carried, this could have had serious consequences. According to local media reports (and a Press Conference with MOD officials), the missile (or parts thereof) have now been located north of Tartu, Estonia's second city.

 

An interesting mission de-brief, I suspect 😟      

[XV107]

What's the Spanish for 'switch pigs', I wonder?🤔

[exdraken]

Wonder if launched unintentionally against the French Mirages they were exercising with, or some other error without a simulated launch....?

[Artie]

According to some local (military) sources, there must be something behind all that stuff that we don't really know, or that somebody's trying to hide...The pilot is a veteran officer, with lots of flying hours, and  not a newbie. A "human mistake" is not likely.

To launch an AIM-120 it is required, first of all, to turn on the 'master arm' switch in the cockpit. If this is not lit, the aircraft will remain in 'test mode' and the weapon system will not work directly once the aircraft is in the air. Next, the pilot has to select the missile from the options available to him and, finally, activate the trigger. At least three steps. Not a "pushed the trigger by mistake" situation. A system failure is most likely, but who knows....It's very easy for politicians and uninformed administrations to put the blame on the pilot whenever an accident happens.

Would the pilot be fulfilling an order that they now intend to deny or hide? Don't think so, theories of conspiracy don't have any place here...

Do they intend to hide the fact that these planes are unreliable, having led several incidents in Spain? Not far from reality...It's a traditional way of acting from spanish MoD, putting the blame on the pilot, the only professional in this equation.

[Artie]

The first investigations indicate that what really happened was that there was a failure in the fastening system, and the missile was detached in flight. It was not fired or launched by accident, but was released due to system failure. If you buy rubbish, you fly rubbish. And the politicians won't admit their blame for cutting defense budgets, which include proper maintenance and systems updating. Needless to say, the current left sided spanish government and its traditional adversity towards the armed forces has seen this incident as an excellent means of anti-militarist propaganda.

It would be interesting if now both the media and politicians publicly acknowledged their error by blaming the pilot. Won't happen, for sure.

[Tiger331]

4 hours ago, Artie said:

The first investigations indicate that what really happened was that there was a failure in the fastening system, and the missile was detached in flight. It was not fired or launched by accident, but was released due to system failure. If you buy rubbish, you fly rubbish. And the politicians won't admit their blame for cutting defense budgets, which include proper maintenance and systems updating. Needless to say, the current left sided spanish government and its traditional adversity towards the armed forces has seen this incident as an excellent means of anti-militarist propaganda.

It would be interesting if now both the media and politicians publicly acknowledged their error by blaming the pilot. Won't happen, for sure.

Not according to local sources. The Estonian Air Force Air Surveillance Wing evidently tracked the missile on it's 'flight path' of 80Kms across several counties before it impacted the ground and exploded. The aircraft was exercising with the French Air Force Mirage 2000s currently based in Estonia when the incident occurred. It has been stated that as soon as the Spanish pilot realised his quote"'mistake" unquote, he broke off an engagement, reported the mishap and returned to base in Lithuania. If the missile had fallen off the aircraft, due to an issue with the pylon/mounting I doubt he would have admitted to a mistake and the missile would have, most likely, dropped to earth more or less intact (depending on final trajectory) rather than to have created a massive hole in the ground.  Interestingly the Estonian media have now also picked up on the fact that there have been a number of incidents/accidents involving Spanish Eurofighters in recent years and that, in spite of operating one of the smallest fleets, these events are disproportionate to those reported by other operators.

 

     

[F-32]

Lucky he didn't splash one of the 2000's - that would've been a very awkward debrief