Cause of malfunction? Anybody know how this sort of thing might have happened?

Equipment malfunction blamed for sonobuoy crash

A sonobuoy transmitter, usually launched from airforce P3-C Orions, is believed to have malfunctioned, causing it to fall from a plane and land on a suburban Adelaide home.

They are usually launched into ocean waters to help submarine tracking operations.

Air Commodore Des Long says all 19 RAAF Orions will stop remote control sonobuoy launches, which employ explosive charges, until the fault is isolated.

He said there is little chance the incident can be attributed to procedural error.

"We will be having an investigation by an external agency, that is our ADF, Australian Defence Force flight safety team," he said.

"They'll be looking into our practices and procedures, but our initial investigation is we are 99 per cent certain that this is a failure which is outside our realm of controlling."

Projectile crashes through SA home

A young couple from Adelaide's southern suburbs are today shopping for a new bed to replace the one destroyed by some falling air force equipment yesterday.

Karen Lafrentz returned to her home in Panorama yesterday afternoon to find a hole in the roof and an eight kilogram projectile, which smashed her bed after falling from an Orion aircraft.

The RAAF has apologised and promised to pay for all damages, as well as having paid for a night for Ms Lafrentz and her family in a hotel.

She says the metal object fell with such force it destroyed bedroom furniture and could have struck her partner.

"If it happened at a different time of the day and we were home, I mean it would have been seriously hurt because it was lying on his pillow.

"It come down on his pillow and slid off the bed."

Link to stories:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/nat/newsnat-19jan2000-55.htm

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 19, 2000

Answers

In a detailed briefing the airforce blame overseas manufacturing causing failure of the lit to the shute housing the buoy. All Orion aircraft are now quaranteed for inspection.

The family in question are now enjoying a holiday courtecy of the Airforce.

_________(source Win 9 TV evening news 5 minutes ago)

Regards from Down Under where its raining all sorts of stuff...

-- Pieter (zaadz@icisp.net.au), January 19, 2000.

oops! should read 'lid of the shute' (not lit)

Cheers

-- Pieter (zaadz@icisp.net.au), January 19, 2000.

Carl:

Sonobouys are typically placed in a series of small chutes. They are held in place by an explosive bolt. When the Orion is looking for submarines, it will drop a number of sonobouys in predetermined patterns with each released by the firing of the explosive bolt. This can be done manually or by an on-board computer. While not flying patrol, the bolts are usually made safe. It sounds like either someone hit a switch that wasn't made safe or there was an electical or mechanical problem that caused the bolt to fire and drop the sonobouy. It's possible, although unlikely, that it was also a computer failure. I say it's unlikely because a multiple sonobouys should have been dropped if the computer failed.

Jim

-- Jim Cooke (JJCooke@yahoo.com), January 19, 2000.

Thanks for the clear and informative posts.

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 19, 2000.