US fisherman nets live missile
Instead of what he thought was a very large fish, a Florida fisherman netted a live and very unstable air-to-air guided missile that was floating in the Gulf of Mexico, police said.
According to the bomb squad that dismantled it, the heavily corroded missile could have exploded at any moment, but it was kept onboard the Bold Venture boat by commercial fisherman Rodney Salomon for 10 days before he returned it to port.
Mr Salomon, 37, from Saint Petersburg, Florida, was long-line fishing 80 kilometres out in the Gulf from Panama City when he "caught" what was clearly a military ordnance, said the Pinellas County sheriff's office.
He waited well over a week to return to the Madeira Beach dock, where he notified authorities.
The missile was dismantled within hours by bomb specialists at a nearby military base.
The experts said the missile was corroded by its apparent extended stay in saltwater. According to the bomb team "it was live and in a very unstable state," police said.
Mr Salomon asked the bomb squad if he could keep the missile after it was made safe, but his request was denied.
- AFP
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Dreamweaver
Posts: 4688
Date Joined: 01/12/07
Crikey!
Some folks will collect anything LOL if the air to air had gone off - he would have turned into a surface to air to surface
Soon to be de "dreamweaver" ed!
BBWA4LIFE
Posts: 116
Date Joined: 23/05/09
that guy was the coolest
that guy was the coolest customer ive ever seen. He said "I thought it was going to explode so i just kept it onboard" hahaha was a funny bloke.
Going Offroad In Search Of The Elusive One.....
Auslobster
Posts: 1901
Date Joined: 03/05/08
Why...
...was a live air-to-air missile floating in the ocean in the first place? You would think whatever military unit (assuming it WAS military, not drug dealers) would try to account for any weapons that go missing?
Colin Hay
Posts: 10407
Date Joined: 23/10/07
I am glad he didn;t try to scale and gut it
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Shorty
Posts: 1549
Date Joined: 10/05/08
That would have put the
That would have put the frighteners on other commercial fishermen when they saw him steaming towards them with a missile up front
Dreamweaver
Posts: 4688
Date Joined: 01/12/07
The MOTHER of Pinger Solutions!
Mount it above your hard top cab or bimini/targa (on a frame) with a large accompanying notice:
WARNING UNEXPLODED UNSTABLE ORDINANCE!
Hey presto - the MOTHER of all pinger deterents!
Soon to be de "dreamweaver" ed!
Johnyy_Boii
Posts: 328
Date Joined: 20/04/09
haha i wonder what he was
haha i wonder what he was thinking when he asked to keep it
Faulkner Family
Posts: 18307
Date Joined: 11/03/08
i could just imagine that
i could just imagine that thing being hit by a boat at high speeds , at least someone had the thought of a souvineer or it could easily have been hit byy an ocean liner with hundreds on board
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
skintba
Posts: 35
Date Joined: 25/04/09
there is so many peices of
there is so many peices of un explode military ordinence kicking around all over the world that its a suprise to me more people arnt blown u on a regualr basis, there is also a massive market for 'safe' military items such as shes deactivated rounds and the like not surprised he wanted to keep it also would of looked aswome strung up behind the bar at home;)