Virginia Beach, Va. - A small, inert training bomb fell Tuesday from a fighter jet that was heading to an air station, the Navy said. No one was hurt.
The 10-pound bomb scraped a warehouse's concrete exterior wall in the resort city of Virginia Beach, causing "extremely minimal damage," Navy spokesman Mike Maus said.
The F/A-18C Hornet was returning to Oceana Naval Air Station after a training mission at the Navy's bombing range in Dare County, N.C., when it dropped the bomb as it was landing, Maus said. He did not know the jet's altitude.
The jet was undamaged and landed safely, Maus said.
A Navy board will investigate and determine whether the pilot should be punished, Maus said. The Navy did not release the pilot's name.
The bomb was a BDU-48, which carries an explosive charge that emits smoke upon impact, Maus said. Air crews practice air-to-ground bombing using such "bomb dumb units" as a low-cost alternative to live ordnance, he said.
