Florida fisherman reels in a guided missile

by Stevie Smith - Jun 10 2009, 15:00

With one lucky escape already notched up this week after a dog fetched a live World War II grenade to its German owner, a fisherman in Florida has emerged unscathed from a similarly dangerous situation involving a considerably more modern weapon.

Fishing aboard his boat in the Gulf of Mexico, Rodney Saloman (37) was convinced he’d bagged a catch to remember as he fought to reel in the wriggling beast attached to the end of his line.

Imagine his surprise when the trophy catch turned out to be an extremely unstable air-to-air missile.

“I had it strapped to the roof of my boat as we rode through lightning storms,” explained Mr. Saloman, according to 10 Connects News of Tampa Bay. “I wasn’t scared,” added the lucky fisherman regarding his close encounter with the unexploded ordnance. “Why should I be scared?”

While apparently not affected by fear, Mr. Saloman evidently had plenty of reason to be scared if bomb disposal experts from nearby McDill Air Force base are to be believed.

Brought in to safely dismantle the eight-foot missile, the bomb squad said it could have exploded at any moment during Mr. Saloman’s return trip to shore.

According to the local Pinellas County sheriff’s office, the missile was an American-made device hooked by Mr. Saloman approximately 80 kilometres off the coast of Panama City.

While the exact ‘hows and whys’ of the missile discovery may be seen as something of a mystery, an Air Force spokesperson has said the device was an AIM-9 “released by an F-15 on August 16, 2004, during an exercise conducted by the 53rd weapons evaluation group at Tyndall Base in Panama City.”

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