Warning Came Too Late in Kuwait Bomb Run

A military air controller on the ground gave a U.S. Navy pilot clearance to drop bombs that killed six people at a Kuwaiti training range, then quickly tried to abort the order, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.

The officials said the American “forward air controller” apparently realized that the pilot’s three 500-pound bombs would miss the intended target. But his call to abort came too late, and the bombs sprayed shrapnel across the desert observation post where military observers were gathered, officials said.

“Tragically, they hit near the service members that were at an observation post on the range,” Navy Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman, said at a news conference here.

The disclosure prompted speculation from some defense officials that the controller may have made a mistake that caused the accident Monday. But other Pentagon officials insisted that the cause of the accident remains murky. An investigative panel will head to the scene in Kuwait today.

The accident, which came at the close of quarterly exercises at the Udairi bombing range in northwestern Kuwait, killed five American servicemen and a New Zealander. Five other Americans and two Kuwaitis were injured.

The accident demonstrates the risks of “close air support” operations, which continue to be a key mission for the Pentagon even in an era dominated by precision-guided munitions, analysts said. In these operations, controllers in the air and on the ground guide aircraft to drop bombs on targets that are often moving and frequently close to friendly forces.

“This has always been difficult,” said Daniel Goure, a former Pentagon official at the Lexington Institute, a Virginia think tank. “But you’ve got to do it, and you’ve got to train for it.”

The Pentagon released the names of the five dead Americans: Air Force Staff Sgt. Jason M. Faley of Pennsylvania, Army Staff Sgt. Troy J. Westberg of Wisconsin, Army Staff Sgt. Richard N. Boudreau of Florida, Army Sgt. Phillip M. Freligh of Nevada and Army Spc. Jason D. Wildfong of West Virginia. Their hometowns were not provided.

Authorities earlier identified the New Zealand army officer as Acting Maj. John McNutt, 27.

A day and a half after the Monday night accident, information from the Pentagon remained sketchy. Officials said they were unable to provide the name of the forward air controller in charge of the operation or even identify his service branch. They said they could provide few additional details on how the accident occurred.

They identified the Navy pilot as Cmdr. David O. Zimmerman, an experienced and decorated flier who commands the VFA-37 squadron of F/A-18 Hornets on the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman. Zimmerman, the son of a former naval aviator, is a native of Orange Park, Fla., who has been flying F/A-18s for eight years.

U.S. and British fliers had completed 79 of 85 scheduled sorties over the Udairi range, about 30 miles from the Iraqi border, when the bombing occurred.

Officials said the accident took place about 7 p.m. and that both the pilot and air controller were using night vision goggles.

The military services use a variety of techniques to guide pilots in close air support operations. They now can identify and track targets using laser-pointer devices, infrared signals, and radar and visual cues.

They can pass along the location of the target from ships, aircraft or drone planes by voice over the radio or via electronic transmissions. Controllers wearing night vision goggles can mark a target on their visual field and send the information to the pilot so that it appears simultaneously in the pilot’s goggles.

But the new equipment occasionally can be confusing. And often controllers find it simpler to call in the strike by referring to visual cues, such as a nearby mountain or lake.

They also often rely on old-fashioned unguided--or “dumb”-- bombs rather than munitions that are guided by lasers or navigational systems. Inexpensive and plentiful, dumb bombs are still attractive for destroying low-value targets that are scattered across a wide area, such as truck convoys.

Air traffic controllers talk constantly to the pilot while the plane is approaching the target. They do not approve release of the bomb--with the order “cleared, hot”--until it is certain that both sides are in agreement on the exact location of the target.

Yet errors can still occur. The tough job of close air support caused a number of casualties during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, as controllers and pilots misidentified friendly troops as foes or simply bombed too close to their own forces.

In one incident, U.S. aircraft accidentally struck two British armored personnel carriers, killing nine people.

Flat, featureless desert terrain, such as exists at the Udairi range, presents special problems in identifying landmarks. Some pilots swear by night vision goggles, but the devices can also produce blurring and misleading images.

Making an accurate strike on such terrain with night vision goggles is very tricky, pilots and analysts agreed in interviews.

“To try that at night, and with dumb bombs, is a very sporty game,” analyst Goure said.

Of the five Americans injured in the accident, one was taken to a hospital in Germany. Two others will be flown there when they are able to travel, Quigley said.

The two other injured Americans and the two Kuwaitis were treated and released at the scene.

The U.S. Central Command, which is based in Tampa, Fla., and oversees military operations in the Persian Gulf, said an investigation team headed by Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Mike DeLong would depart for Kuwait today to begin a full inquiry.

In New Zealand, government officials said they intend to press the United States for answers in the death of McNutt.

“This was a live bomb basically dropped on observers,” said Defense Minister Mark Burton. “It shouldn’t happen, and we all need to know precisely what went wrong.”