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The Belgium Ministry of Defence has confirmed two of its F-16 fighter jets were damaged during an incident at its Florennes Air Base on October 11.
In a statement, the Ministry of Defence said a fire broke out during maintenance work on an F-16 at about 1410 local time. The plane was burnt and a second suffered collateral damage.
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The statement said two technicians suffered hearing damage from the incident and were treated at the scene.
Further, the Ministry of Defence said Belgium’s Aviation Safety Directorate had opened an investigation into the incident.
Twitter user Tony Delvita posted some photos of the incident on the social media platform:
Brand in Florennes ! pic.twitter.com/Uwu9gS04r3
— Tony Delvita (@ebcrew00) October 11, 2018
Later on Twitter, the Belgian Air Force said “Je peux vous assurer que la perte de cet avion nous touche profondément” or “I can assure you that the loss of this plane touches us deeply”.
Further, it wished those injured a speedy recovery.
Je peux vous assurer que la perte de cet avion nous touche profondément @BeAirForce
— Belgian Air Force🇧🇪 (@BeAirForce) October 11, 2018
Le bien-être de notre personnel est en effet notre principale préoccupation. Nous souhaitons un prompt rétablissement à nos collègues légèrement blessés au cours de l'incident.
— Belgian Air Force🇧🇪 (@BeAirForce) October 11, 2018
Media reports said the incident was caused by someone accidentally firing a cannon from an F-16 during routine maintenance work.
The cannon struck another F-16 that was fuelled up for an upcoming sortie and damaged another.
Florennes Air Base is about 100km south of the Belgian capital Brussels.
TwinTiger
says:Does the maintenance technician or armourer who hit the trigger now get to stencil a F-16 silhouette on their tool box?
PAUL
says:M61 VULCAN Almost 100 rounds per second! vicious amazing no one was killed
AlanH
says:“Wonder what this button does? Oops!” Unbelievable!!!
AlanH
says:Love the tweet [in French] by Ca Titille in the article that perhaps this was the work of the CIA to force their[the Belgians] hand in the quick replacement [of their F-16s] with the F-35! Classic!