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Miraculous Escape As F-16 Accidentally Fires On Control Tower
A Norwegian fighter jet has accidentally strafed a control tower whilst three officers were inside.
The F-16 machine-gunned the tower while conducting a mock attack on the uninhabited Tarva island chain, although the officers escaped unhurt.
A Norwegian military spokesman, Captain Brynjar Stordal, told the AFP news agency:
"An investigation has been opened."
The incident, which happened shortly after midnight earlier this month, saw a hail of bullets hit the tower.
The jet had been supposed to fire at a simulated target on the airfield around 500m away but "something went wrong", according to Major Stian Roen.
Control tower on the Norwegian Tarva island chain
F-16s hit the same tower in a similar incident in 2009, which also saw no-one injured.
Click below, meanwhile, to see footage of an F-16 flying without a pilot at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, ahead of serving as a full-scale aerial target for pilots and other military units.
It comes two years after a Dutch F-16 mistakenly machine-gunned a control tower during a training flight north of Amsterdam.
Two controllers at the Vliehors range on Vlieland island escaped injury when several live rounds from the aircraft's 20mm cannon caused minor damage to the tower.
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