The Korean navy’s P-3CK on patrol. / Courtesy of Twitter
A Korean navy’s P-3CK, a maritime patrol aircraft, accidentally dropped weapons into the East Sea on Sunday.
The accident happened around 6:10 a.m. during a patrol off the coast of Yangyang county, Gangwon Province, when a co-pilot accidentally pressed the emergency weapons release switch.
“One of the plane’s crew mistakenly touched the emergency weapons release switch instead of a buoy that detects submarine sound waves,” said a navy official. “The weapons were not armed and did not explode.”
The missing weapons include two harpoon missiles, two torpedoes and two depth charges and are worth about 4 billion won ($3.3 million).
The navy has sent a mine sweeper and salvage ship to salvage the weapons if possible. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but I am surprised it is that easy to drop live missiles by pressing the wrong switch like this. You would think there would be some kind of safety mechanism over the switch.
Luckily, they had a camera on board, that caught details of the incident. Shouldn’t happen again.
https://youtu.be/wcW_Ygs6hm0
Mystery as engine drops out of B-52 bomber during Air Force training mission over wildlife refuge in North Dakota
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4093658/B-52-drops-engine-mid-flight-wildlife-refuge-North-Dakota.html
You know the drill… 6am, sleepy Korean…head gets heavy… out go weapons… simple.