Two radar-guided Brimstone missiles have detached from a British Tornado fighter jet after a bombing mission against ISIS over Syria and Iraq.
A military spokesman has stated that the two missiles have fallen off the airplane as it was landing in bad weather on the island of Cyprus, according to NBC News. The aircraft was participating in a U.S.-led attack against the Islamic State.
The poor visibility in the region during the aircraft's landing may have meant that the warplane ended up hitting the ground at a wrong angle, which ended up disengaging the missiles from their mounting brackets.
The incident took place in the wake of a series of bombing missions against ISIS, such as the massive airstrike previously covered by HNGN.
While the missiles were smashed to pieces when they fell off the aircraft, they did not detonate due to a mechanism that required a pilot to manually push an electrical trigger from the aircraft computer in order to arm the missile, according to the Daily Mail.
The Tornado is one of two British fighters that participated in the bombing mission over Iraq. Missions against ISIS have been carried out by coalition forces since September last year.
A member of the Royal Air Force has stated that the pieces of the missiles were already being retrieved from the runway.
"Put it this way, they won't be used again," he said.
Brimstone missiles are ideal weapons to use against vehicles of the Islamic State, mainly due to their capability to hit vehicles moving up to 70 miles per hour from seven miles away.
