3/14/2008 12:34 AM
Federal authorities are investigating why a dummy bomb traveling about 600 mph crashed into a building at a Tulsa apartment complex Thursday.
The non-explosive BDU-33 bomb came from an F-16 fighter plane that was headed for Salina, Kan., from the Tulsa Air National Guard Base, according to a press release from the Oklahoma Air National Guard. The plane took off about 3 p.m. and the bomb was inadvertently released from the aircraft a few minutes later.
No one was injured when the bomb crashed into the Canyon Creek Apartments, 2102 E. 51st St. It hit a building that houses electrical equipment and knocked out an apartment wall and power to the complex.
The BDU-33, which weighs 22 pounds and is used during training, has a spotting charge that releases a cloud of smoke on impact, but the pilot never saw the smoke trail that would have indicated it did indeed drop.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have been assisting in the ongoing investigation.
Canyon Creek resident Jeremy Isbell said the electricity was off when he and his wife arrived at their home on Thursday evening. After they went inside, his wife, Kyla Isbell, discovered that their bathroom wall had been
knocked out.
Isbell said he went outside to tell AEP-PSO employees who were trying to find the cause of the outage that the damage to his home might have been caused by an electrical explosion.
The workers then looked at the damage and found the bomb -- half of which was buried in the concrete structure of the building that housed the complex's electrical equipment. The other part, which had fins on it, was twisted and broken off but probably measured at least 2 feet in length, he said.
The bomb had plunged through some trees before it hit the building, and firefighters were using ladders to climb into the trees, apparently to try to determine its trajectory, Isbell said.
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