March 26, 1998 (by Lieven Dewitte) -
Three missiles jettisoned in an emergency by a U.S. fighter jet returning from Kurdish-held northern Iraq were destroyed in a controlled explosion in southern Turkey on Friday.
An operation Northern Watch F-16 returning from a mission had to jettison his fuel tanks and his missiles during an in-flight emergency.
U.S. explosives experts detonated the missile warheads after burying them ten feet (3 meters) underground in an open area near the southern town of Ceyhan.
The cause of the fault on the F-16 jet is still under investigation.
