During a training exercise last week, two United States jet fighters dropped four bombs near the Great Barrier Reef after the exercise didn't go according to plan.
CNN reports that the two planes were forced to dump the bombs because they were running low on fuel and would not have been able to land with the weapons still on board.
Of the four bombs, two were explosives that had been disarmed before they were dropped, while the other two were non-explosive.
"The jettison box was selected in a deep channel away from the reef to minimize the possibility of reef damage. However the inert and unexploded ordnance is inside the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area," said an official with the U.S. Navy. "The Navy knows full well how environmentally sensitive the Great Barrier Reef is, and will do everything to make this right."
The specific area to drop the bombs was chosen so that the water was not only away from coral in the reefs, but also so that it was deep enough that ships would not run into them.
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