Estonia: Spanish pilot erroneously fired missile last year
Posted February 21, 2019 9:37 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HELSINKI — Estonia says the pilot of a Spanish Air Force fighter jet on a NATO air exercise in Estonia last year mistakenly fired an air-to-air missile because of a “failure to comply with the safety rules” and ruled out “a systematic error.”
The Estonian defence ministry said Thursday that the AMRAAM-type air-to-air missile posed no threat nor caused any injuries, and existing regulations and rules already in place were sufficient.
Estonia ordered a temporary halt to NATO air exercises in the Baltic country after the Aug. 7 incident.
The unrecovered missile carried up to 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of explosives and was last located around 40 kilometres (24 miles) north of Estonia’s second city of Tartu.
It has a built-in self-destruct for such accidents but may have landed.
The Associated Press
