An F-16 pilot jettisoned two fuel tanks over Michigan on July 31. One landed in Lake Huron, while the other landed in a Save-A-Lot parking lot and hit a car. Fortunately, no one was injured.
ABC/NBC Link UpNorthLive reported that IOSCO County Sheriff’s Office dispatchers received reports of an explosion near Baldwin Resort Road, a street that runs along the shore of Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron. Two Ohio Air National Guard F-16s were in the area for unknown reasons.
“One of those F-16s declared an emergency and dumped two external fuel tanks filled with jet fuel. One of those fuel tanks landed north of Baldwin Resort Road at Lake Huron and exploded,” the sheriff’s office said.
The other tank landed in the parking lot of a Save-A-Lot in East Tawas, Michigan, more than two and a half miles away. Fortunately, it did not explode. A tweet from UpNorthLive showed one tank floating in the lake, and the damage the other tank caused in the parking lot, where it severely damaged the right rear end of a Chevy Silverado pickup. Police described it as “minor damage to a couple of vehicles,” and the sheriff’s office said both planes landed safely in Toledo, Ohio.
