M
3/14/2008, 09:09 AM
Lost military rocket crashes into Tulsa apartment building (http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=20080314_1__Arock56356)
by: STAFF REPORTS
3/14/2008 12:00 AM
Federal authorities are investigating why a military rocket traveling about 600 mph crashed into a building at a Tulsa apartment complex Thursday evening.
Jeremy Isbell, who lives at the Canyon Creek Apartments, 2102 E. 51st St., said he was told by a federal investigator that the rocket came from a military plane. It crashed into a building that houses electrical equipment and knocked out an apartment wall and power to the complex.
Tulsa Police Capt. Rick Helberg confirmed that early Friday.
A federal agent told him that a military pilot thought the rocket, which had a "dummy warhead" on it, had been dropped over a Kansas field but that the pilot never saw the smoke trail that would have indicated that the rocket did indeed drop.
Helberg said the Air National Guard was on a routine training mission and thought they'd lost the "inert military ordnance" somewhere over Kansas.
Isbell said Friday morning that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were at the site all night and that the warhead had been removed from the scene.
A call placed to the Air National Guard base in Tulsa was not returned by early Friday. The military is expected to issue a press release on the incident Friday.
Isbell said the electricity was off when he and his wife arrived at their home on Thursday evening. After they went inside, his wife, Kyla Isbell, discovered that their bathroom wall had been knocked out.
Isbell said he went outside to tell AEP-PSO employees who were trying to find the cause of the outage that the damage to his home might have been caused by an electrical explosion.
The workers then looked at the damage and found the rocket -- half of which was buried in the concrete structure of the building that housed the complex's electrical equipment. The other part of the rocket, which had fins on it, was twisted and broken off but probably measured at least 2 feet in length, he said.
The rocket had plunged through some trees before it hit the building, and firefighters were using ladders to climb into the trees, apparently to try to determine its trajectory, Isbell said.
Associate Images:
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g258/DixieChickMissy/rocket1.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g258/DixieChickMissy/rocket2.jpg
Jeremy Isbell used his cell phone to photograph the end of the rocket found in his apartments wall.
by: STAFF REPORTS
3/14/2008 12:00 AM
Federal authorities are investigating why a military rocket traveling about 600 mph crashed into a building at a Tulsa apartment complex Thursday evening.
Jeremy Isbell, who lives at the Canyon Creek Apartments, 2102 E. 51st St., said he was told by a federal investigator that the rocket came from a military plane. It crashed into a building that houses electrical equipment and knocked out an apartment wall and power to the complex.
Tulsa Police Capt. Rick Helberg confirmed that early Friday.
A federal agent told him that a military pilot thought the rocket, which had a "dummy warhead" on it, had been dropped over a Kansas field but that the pilot never saw the smoke trail that would have indicated that the rocket did indeed drop.
Helberg said the Air National Guard was on a routine training mission and thought they'd lost the "inert military ordnance" somewhere over Kansas.
Isbell said Friday morning that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were at the site all night and that the warhead had been removed from the scene.
A call placed to the Air National Guard base in Tulsa was not returned by early Friday. The military is expected to issue a press release on the incident Friday.
Isbell said the electricity was off when he and his wife arrived at their home on Thursday evening. After they went inside, his wife, Kyla Isbell, discovered that their bathroom wall had been knocked out.
Isbell said he went outside to tell AEP-PSO employees who were trying to find the cause of the outage that the damage to his home might have been caused by an electrical explosion.
The workers then looked at the damage and found the rocket -- half of which was buried in the concrete structure of the building that housed the complex's electrical equipment. The other part of the rocket, which had fins on it, was twisted and broken off but probably measured at least 2 feet in length, he said.
The rocket had plunged through some trees before it hit the building, and firefighters were using ladders to climb into the trees, apparently to try to determine its trajectory, Isbell said.
Associate Images:
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g258/DixieChickMissy/rocket1.jpg
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g258/DixieChickMissy/rocket2.jpg
Jeremy Isbell used his cell phone to photograph the end of the rocket found in his apartments wall.