A forward air controller's call to abort an air strike by a US Navy F/A-18 fighter jet on a range in Kuwait was seconds too late as three bombs fell on his own position, killing six military personnel, Pentagon officials were quoted by AFP as saying Tuesday.
The 500-pound gravity bombs landed on an observation post at the Udairi range, where controllers had called in the strike as part of a close air support exercise, said Rear Admiral Craig Quigley, a senior Pentagon spokesman.
A US Navy inquiry team, to be led by a high-ranking Marine Corps officer, headed for Kuwait to open an investigation into how a training exercise had gone so disastrously wrong. The Pentagon invited New Zealand and Kuwait to take part in the inquiry, said reports.
Five Americans and a New Zealander were killed when at least two of the bombs exploded, he said. It was not known if the forward air controller who called in the strike was among them, he said.
Other Pentagon officials said an abort call was radioed to the F/A-18 but it was too late, according to the agency.
The pilot had been given the go-ahead to drop his bombs, and he released them on what he thought was the target, a senior military official said.
"Right after the release of the weapons, there was an abort call. We don't know what prompted it, but it looks like the timing of the abort call was after the release of the weapons," said the official, who asked not to be identified.
"The whole process was over within 10 seconds," he said.
According to the Herald Tribune newspaper, the dead were identified as Air Force Staff Sergeant Jason Faley; Army Staff Sergeant Troy Westberg; Army Staff Sergeant Richard Boudreau; Army Sergeant Phillip Freligh; Army Specialist Jason Wildfong. New Zealand Special Air Services Major John McNutt also was killed.
White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said that the US chargé d'affaires in Wellington had sent a letter of condolence to the New Zealand government, said the Tribune, adding that he would not comment on the question of compensation for victims.
Prime Minister Helen Clark called for a full explanation of the incident.
"We are shocked that a training exercise could go so terribly wrong," she said in an official statement. "The New Zealand government is certainly expecting an urgent explanation as to how a large bomb was dropped in an area of a training range where observers were based." – Albawaba.com
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