America bombs Great Barrier Reef

[Cu455]

Two American fighter jets dropped four bombs on Australia's Great Barrier Reef after a training exercise went wrong, it has emerged.

The two AV-88 Harrier jets launched from aircraft carrier USS Bonhomme Richard each jettisoned an inert bomb and an unarmed explosive bomb in the World Heritage-listed marine park on Tuesday, the US 7th Fleet said in a statement.

Senator Larissa Waters, Greens party spokeswoman on the Great Barrier Reef, described the dumping of bombs as outrageous and said it should not be allowed.

She said: "Have we gone completely mad? Is this how we look after our World Heritage area now? Letting a foreign power drop bombs on it?"


http://news.sky.com/story/1118492/great-barrier-reef-anger-after-bombs-dropped

 

[Dr. Reef]

i saw the report on cnn earlier, glad those bombs were deactivated.

 

[M007]

Bizarre

 

[Jeff000]

Hugely misleading title of the article.

I saw it earlier too.
They dropped four 1000lb chunks of steel into more than 160' of water inside the world heritage zone.

They were no where near a reef, and they didn't expode. They did not bomb the reef. "The US jettisoned four 1000lb steel objects into the rocky/sandy depths inside the world heritage zone" is a much more accurate title. The zone is significant in size, and the jets were not expecting to have to bring them back, so were running low on fuel. I guess crashing a couple jets into the reef would have been better??

Environmentalist need to cool down and look at what happened instead of having such an emotional response. I mean they say all the facts in their story, so maybe they are just too stupid?

 

[Cu455]

Hugely misleading title of the article.

I saw it earlier too.
They dropped four 1000lb chunks of steel into more than 160' of water inside the world heritage zone.

They were no where near a reef, and they didn't expode. They did not bomb the reef. "The US jettisoned four 1000lb steel objects into the rocky/sandy depths inside the world heritage zone" is a much more accurate title. The zone is significant in size, and the jets were not expecting to have to bring them back, so were running low on fuel. I guess crashing a couple jets into the reef would have been better??

Environmentalist need to cool down and look at what happened instead of having such an emotional response. I mean they say all the facts in their story, so maybe they are just too stupid?

You should know the media never let facts get in the way of a good story. I like sky news version better, even if it's misleading. It also sucks it's at 160 feet, to deep for me to dive.

 

[Painted skin]

Isn't there better places to drop bombs? Next thing the Gov. going to say is they thought they spotted a terrorist bunker near and on the reef.

Bomb must of been made in China and not US made. It was a dud and didn't explode.

 

[Khemul]

... an inert bomb and an unarmed explosive bomb ...

It was like someone was given the challenge, come up with the most contradictory description of an object possible... :spin1:

 

[cakemanPA]

Did not "bomb" the Barrier Reef. Never let the truth get in the way of a story.

 

[M007]

I guess that begs the question; what were they doing flying around with four 1K "chunks of steel" without enough fuel to return them to their rightful place?

 

[Bergvid]

I was never and still am not a fan of this joint military program, It was signed by Gillard who has recently been removed from government. America has enough desert for them to drop their bombs on even if they were not dropped in the reef itself they were dropped in the waters that are listed as protected.

I will leave with this note from the Australian article "The extent of damage to the reef or other marine life is unclear."

The truth is that they dropped bombs into the reef weather armed or not it is still bombing.

 

[Jeff000]

You should know the media never let facts get in the way of a good story. I like sky news version better, even if it's misleading. It also sucks it's at 160 feet, to deep for me to dive.

you can dive to 160, just takes a bit of work and equipment, lol.
But it just said deeper than, so could be at 600' too.

Isn't there better places to drop bombs? Next thing the Gov. going to say is they thought they spotted a terrorist bunker near and on the reef.

Bomb must of been made in China and not US made. It was a dud and didn't explode.

Yes they were planning on dropping them on a bombing range. They just had to fly over the heritage area to get to it. The range ended up not being safe, so they couldn't drop them there and on the way back they didn't have enough fuel to carry the bombs too. So they let them go somewhere safe, but still inside the heritage area.

The US has already said they dropped them in a safe area where no damage could be done, and there was no risk of an explosion.

 

[Painted skin]

I guess that begs the question; what were they doing flying around with four 1K "chunks of steel" without enough fuel to return them to their rightful place?

maybe it's one of those top secrete mission " on need to know basis" and they forgot about them jets.. lol

Maybe now Australia will think and try to make it a no military fly over zone..

 

[Bergvid]

This video might give more information, http://youtu.be/y-5FYpB1tPc I suggest you don't read the comments.

 

[Jeff000]

I was never and still am not a fan of this joint military program, It was signed by Gillard who has recently been removed from government. America has enough desert for them to drop their bombs on even if they were not dropped in the reef itself they were dropped in the waters that are listed as protected.

I will leave with this note from the Australian article "The extent of damage to the reef or other marine life is unclear."

The Queensland and Australian Governments management of the site has been abysmal. So bad in fact that the reef is at risk of losing the heritage site classification, and be put on the in danger classification.

I can not imagine there would be any damage do any wildlife. The bigger risk is from the years of the government management screwing it up and looking at making money first and protection a distant 2nd.

 

[Jeff000]

maybe it's one of those top secrete mission " on need to know basis" and they forgot about them jets.. lol

As stated in the article, they flew out to drop these on the test site. They were not given the green light to drop due to safety factors.
So they turned around.

 

[dixiedog]

Fellow Americans, I'll tell you one thing of which you can be absolutely certain: many millions of your dollars will be spent to alleviate the "horrific damage" done to the silt and the mud on the sea floor by these "bombs".

Bet your life on that.

 

[Painted skin]

As stated in the article, they flew out to drop these on the test site. They were not given the green light to drop due to safety factors.
So they turned around.

Still doesn't make me feel any better knowing this did happen and further maybe next time less fortune incident may occur. As well knowing it was also only a game to them.

I'm no hippy, but why can't we all just get along..? :inlove: North Korea especially.

 

[Meanmike]

......

 

[Khemul]

I doubt they would have done a tremendous amount of damage, even if the bombs were armed and did hit the reef directly.

There just isn't anything to be concerned about here at all. A small shipwreck would be a bigger cause of concern then four bombs.

 

[Jeff000]

Still doesn't make me feel any better knowing this did happen and further maybe next time less fortune incident may occur. As well knowing it was also only a game to them.

I'm no hippy, but why can't we all just get along..? :inlove: North Korea especially.

I'd bet my paycheck they didn't just drop them at random.

And I hope you don't think this is the first or last time ordnance has been dropped into the ocean, or land for that matter, to just lose the weight.