A Pentagon investigation into a bombing that killed six people in Kuwait last month has concluded that a Navy pilot mistook an observation post for a target and recommends that he be disciplined, military officials were quoted as saying by New York Times on Thursday.
But the report, which has not yet been made public, also assigns some blame for the bombing to two air traffic controllers who helped guide the F/A-18 pilot toward the observation post and then authorized him to release three 500-pound bombs, the officials said.
Five American servicemen and an Army major from New Zealand died in the incident at the Udairi Range near the Iraq border, while three other Americans were seriously injured.
The officials said the report would probably not include specific recommendations on how the three men should be disciplined, leaving that decision to their commanders in the Navy and Air Force.
For the pilot, Cmdr. David O. Zimmerman, the head of an F/A-18 squadron, the punishment could range from being stripped of his command, being forced into retirement, or being reprimanded, military officials told the paper.
The report also said that at least three other incidents occurred in the months before the March bombing in which pilots dropped bombs in the wrong places at the Udairi Range, the Pentagon officials said. The investigators concluded that the targets might be difficult to see from the air, and recommended that the Army should improve its management of the range.
The report was prepared for Gen. Tommy R. Franks, chief of the United States Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Arabian Gulf region.
The report recounts a rapid series of blunders on the evening of March 12 that began with Commander Zimmerman mistakenly identifying a staffed observation post as his intended target, which was about a mile away. At the time, Commander Zimmerman was flying at about 10,000 feet.
After flying once over the target area, Commander Zimmerman banked and prepared to begin his bombing dive. At the observation post, an Air Force ground spotter was using an infrared beam visible through night-vision goggles to point the pilot toward the intended target. But for reasons that remain unclear, Commander Zimmerman focused on the source of the beam instead of the target.
As he finished his bank, the officials said, Commander Zimmerman received what sounded like assurances that he was on course from a Navy air traffic controller who was flying in a nearby F-14.
In fact, his aircraft was pointed at the observation post, said the report.
Moments later, after Commander Zimmerman had programmed his aircraft to aim at the wrong target, the Air Force controller at the observation base authorized him to drop his bombs, using the code words "cleared hot." Almost immediately, the controller realized the F/A-18 was aiming at him, and tried to abort the mission. But it was too late.
The investigators found that the ground-based air controller was distracted while Commander Zimmerman was preparing his bombing run, causing him to take his eyes off the fighter jet for a brief time. But that was long enough for the controller to lose his bearings, resulting in the mistaken "cleared hot" order, the officials said.
Meanwhile, ABCNEWS reported that Zimmerman has refused to answer investigators' questions by exercising his Fifth Amendment rights against self incrimination. Zimmerman is a decorated combat pilot with more than 3,000 hours flying experience but he has not flown since the accident – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
