September 22, 2004

Navy: Wind, vibration caused ammo box to fall from aircraft  

Associated Press

YOKOSUKA, Japan (Kyodo) — The Navy in Japan said Wednesday that strong wind and aircraft vibration led to the fall of a cartridge box containing 200 machine-gun bullets from a Navy helicopter over Yokohama on July 19.

”The loss of the ammunition was the result of a wind blast coupled with normal aircraft vibration,” the Navy said in a press release.

To prevent similar accidents, it said it will revise procedures on how to open cargo doors and load bullets into machine guns.

The wind blast and aircraft vibration reportedly loosened a hook on the machine-gun cartridge box, which fell off the helicopter as it was heading to the carrier Kitty Hawk from the Naval Air Facility Atsugi.

The Navy said the helicopter crew followed “all applicable instructions and regulations” as they tried to locate the bullets, confirmed that no civilians were injured or endangered, and immediately notified Atsugi base officials.

The Navy and Japanese police recovered 198 of the bullets in a parking lot in Yokohama, but have yet to find the remaining two.

Responding to the explanation, local Japanese officials said, “It’s not enough to erase the anxieties of residents. We will keep asking the U.S. side for more detailed explanations and better preventive measures.”


We need a "cover your ass" icon!

Free ammo from the sky, and they are complaining.  Weirdos.

What if the Ninjas get hold of them??? hock.gif

I can undersand the Japanese getting skittish when things fall from the sky out of American military planes.

Quoted: Free ammo from the sky, and they are complaining.  Weirdos.

nothing like that ever happens to me......

Shit, I probably have 200 rounds of loose ammo in my house and car.

We drop 2 lousy rounds and they get their vending machine panties in a wad. They didnt even get this upset when we dropped 2 nukes.

BANZAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm betting that those 2 rounds were never in the ammo box.

Tell the stupid motherrfuckers that a standard belt is only 198 rounds anyway.

They're afriad they might Get Eliminated.

The last time the 2 rounds were a little bigger.  (hiroshima, nagasaki) we haven't found them either.

Quoted: The last time the 2 rounds were a little bigger.  (hiroshima, nagasaki) we haven't found them either.

I can't believe that they are actually still looking for 2 bullets!

Damn, I'm glad they dont buy Winchester .223 valuepacks, I swear I only get 39 rounds in each one, that'd be 5 missing out of 200 if five value packs were dropped instead of an ammo can.

Kharn

Cartridges...

But they're MACHINE GUN BULLETS!!!

They can level schools and kill dozens in a single bound!  Anyone who comes into contact with them will be overwhelmed with the urge to kill every living human he or she sees!!!!

Quoted: Responding to the explanation, local Japanese officials said, “It’s not enough to erase the anxieties of residents. We will keep asking the U.S. side for more detailed explanations and better preventive measures.”

Why are they worried about 2 rounds? IIRC, gun control in Japan is rediculous. Do they think that some random civvie is going to find them and fire them from their imaginary gun?

I know this sounds silly, but this will be used as fodder by the left and pacifists in many, many protests against the US.  Even expended brass has a social stigma attached to it.  

When ever my unit did training in Japan we had to turn in 1 piece of brass for ever round fired, to include blanks.  You ought to have seen training, we had to stop after anytime we shot to pick up all the brass.

My previous comments on this story…





"Say Tojo… we dropped two pieces of ordnance out of some of our planes round here a couple of weeks ago… we're here to help you look for them…"

Andy

Why does anyone give TWO SHITS about 2 freakin' bullets???

I've got a couple extras I can let them have...