Japanese pilot’s gun accidentally fires into parking lot during training
By Wayne Specht, Misawa
bureau chief
A Japanese pilot says the 20 mm machine gun in his F-4EJ Phantom
fired on its own during air-to-ground training Monday, strafing the parking lot of a drug
addiction rehabilitation center in Hokkaido.
The center is about 1½ miles from Shimamatsu Training Range, between
Sapporo and Chitose.
There were no injuries, police spokesman Akihiro Ishikawa said.
Footage aired by national broadcaster NHK showed one of the 188
rounds fired from the plane shattered the rear window of a parked car and came to rest in
a golf bag in its trunk. Errant rounds, 3 inches long and an inch in diameter, also
penetrated the roof of a garage, striking a bus parked inside.
“We were so fortunate it happened just before lunch time, when
almost everyone was inside the building,” Takahiro Fukura of the rehabilitation
center told Japanese reporters. The incident occurred at 10:55 a.m.
A Defense Ministry official issued an apology late Monday and
announced all Japan Air Self-Defense Force training involving similar aircraft throughout
the country has been suspended.
“This sort of incident should never happen. I would like to
apologize,” said Vice Defense Minister Ken Sato, who bowed deeply before reporters.
“This is unbelievable.”
Also making a public apology was JASDF Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Ikuo
Tootake, who vowed to find out the cause of the accident.
The Defense Ministry sent investigators to Hokkaido to question the
fighter pilot, ministry spokesman Tateki Kaiwa said. The jet was conducting an
air-to-ground firing drill when the 20 mm practice rounds went off inadvertently, said Air
Self-Defense Force spokeswoman Tomoko Tanaka.
NHK television quoted the pilot as saying he never fired the gun and
did not remove a pin from the aircraft’s stick, one of several steps that must be
taken to arm the nose-mounted gun.
The fired rounds did not contain explosives, as dummy ammunition is
used for training purposes. The gun can fire 6,000 rounds per minute.
The twin-engine Phantom, assigned to the 302nd Fighter Squadron, 83rd
Air Wing at Naha Air Base, Okinawa, returned to Chitose Air Base following the incident.
After inspecting the aircraft, the Defense Ministry said 188 rounds
were fired, though only 18 had been recovered, including several that penetrated asphalt
in the parking lot.
Naoko Sekioka contributed to this report.
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