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Old 03-14-2007, 04:44 AM
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Here are two other articles on Zuni's I found -

USS FORESTALL

Eight months after the Oriskany fire there was an accident on the USS Forestall. A ZUNI rocket was accidentally fired from an aircraft being readied for a mission on July 29, 1967. The rocket screamed across the flight deck, struck another aircraft and ignited a fuel fire. The initial fire could have been contained but, 90 seconds after the fire started, a bomb detonated killing or seriously wounding most of the fire fighters.
The detonation ruptured the flight deck and burning fuel spilled into the lower levels of the ship. Bombs, warheads, and rocket motors exploded with varying egress of intensity in the fire, killing 134 and wounding 161 men. Twenty-one aircraft were destroyed
After this incident the Navy established a flag level committee to pursue improvements to the systems used to control flight deck fuel fires. An ordnance safety program was also initiated to characterize flight deck fuel fires and study ways to delay the "cook-off" times of munitions. As a result; insulation is now applied to some bomb casings, delaying "cook-off" times 5 to 10 minutes in a fuel fire, but this does not diminish the violence of its explosive reaction.

USS ENTERPRISE

A third aircraft carrier accident occurred aboard the USS Enterprise (Not NCC-1701) on January 15, 1969. The exhaust from an aircraft engine starter unit was directed onto a pod containing four ZUNI rockets. Heat caused a warhead to detonate. Fragments ruptured the aircraft's fuel tank and ignited a fire.
Three more ZUNI warheads detonated less than a minute after the first explosion. The shaped charges blew holes through the flight deck allowing burning fuel to invade the lower decks.
In all, there were 18 munition's explosions and 8 holes were blown through the flight deck. Losses totaled 15 aircraft, 28 dead, and another 344 injured.
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