Japan grounds F-15s after fuel tank falls off near residential area in Ishikawa

thankfully no one got hurt and no property damage.

oops! i just returned to base and noticed i must have lost my bombs somewhere...

You may drop a hint, drop your wallet, drop your shopping but only an absalute idiot drops a fuel tank

These jets are used for scrambling almost every day. There's a lot of wear and tear on these jets.

hope it was not another pilot pushing the wrong buttons.

and had it been a US F-15........

They should not be flying over residential areas.

It was not clear why the parts fell during the morning practice flight

Maybe some genius maintenance, work similar to what I have received at my car brand service station where their qualified repairmen broke my car only 4 times.

Totally unbelievable and outrageous! How can the air force so careless and negligen?!!. Luckily it's not a bomb.

zichiOct. 08, 2011 - 12:50PM JST Guess since there was no reported explosions the tank must have been empty but had it been full.........

it still isn't very likely it would explode. dropping tanks is not unheard of, and they never "explode". The fuel is basically kerosene and while it burns clean, it doesn't explode so easily, especially from just falling to the ground.

Magic8ballOct. 08, 2011 - 09:55AM JST They should not be flying over residential areas.

this is hilarious!! Do you realize what country this is????

because the gas price is too much might as well give up the tank

The government will get excited about this, but in the case of radiation? No Problem...

God darn American technology. :) Glad no one was hurt, saw them send out some local military to quickly pick up the debris and throw it in the back of a convoy truck.

So... they can't even confirm the safety of their safety test fighters?

Glad no one was hurt.

Maybe the F15 was listening to Snoop Dogg's or Lil Wayne's "Drop it like it's hot" song.

So the one went into service in 1998, it's not that old, even though the original F-15 went into flying in the 70s. It's like when I read about a 737 crash, news talks about how it first flew in the 60s, TRUE, but a modern 737 isn't really anything like the original 737-100 from the 1960s.

headline reminds me of this classic gary larson cartoon http://goo.gl/mAKBC

Lots of wear and tear on those birds, scrambling daily to give chase on Chinese fishing boats.

All of a sudden, F-2s damaged by the tsunami are too costly to repair & F-15s are too worn-out-- only choice remained is ..( we have got it ! )