The Dropping Of The Noaa-N Prime Satellite
In 2003, the Noaa-N Prime Satellite fell off its plate and ended up in the floor. This happened while workers at Sunnyvale’s Lockheed Martin Space Systems were trying to move it to a different position. The drop caused $135 million in damages. Someone had actually forgotten to secure the satellite with the required 24 bolts before lifting it. Lockheed Martin gracefully said that they wouldn’t accept any profit to pay for the costs of the repair and they also covered another $30 million. The United States government shouldered the rest of the costs, but that didn’t go down well.
The Dropping Of The Noaa-N Prime Satellite
F-16 Jet Parked At The Wrong Spot
Who hasn’t made mistakes at work? No one if we are being honest. However, have you ever fired a cannon by accident and destroyed a fighter jet worth $15 million? This is exactly what happened at the Florennes Air Force Base in 2018. The details of the incident weren’t made immediately clear, but a maintenance worker in Belgium somehow managed to shoot a Vulcan cannon by accident. It hit a General Dynamics’ F-16, which had been fully-fueled, and the aircraft exploded. Thankfully no one died, but two technicians got injured in the head injuries because of the extremely careless (and costly) mistake. An F-16AM fighter jet nearby was undergoing maintenance when the cannon was fired accidentally and caused the catastrophic damage. There was another nearby plane that was injured, but it was repaired.
F-16 Jet Parked At The Wrong Spot
