An IDF officer and an NCO were sentenced to 21 and 14 days in military prison (respectively) for failing to follow munition safety procedures, which resulted in the damage of 20 Iron Dome missiles, Ynet learned Sunday.
The event took place last week at the IAF's Air Defense School in southern Israel. According to an IAF inquiry the two were responsible for securing the missiles in their docking stations, in a storage bunker, but failed to follow protocol, resulting in the dislodging and collapse of about 20 projectiles.
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Some of the missiles were damaged as a result of the tumble and the damage is estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The incident was defined as a serious safety event, but IDF sources stressed that at no point were the missiles in danger of exploding.
The commission of inquiry formed by IAF Chief Major-General Ido Nechushtan found both soldiers to be personally responsible for the incident. The committee is also in the process of drawing operational conclusions from the incident, in order to ensure it does not happen again.
The IDF released the following statement: "At the end of the inquiry into the incident, the officer in charge of the docking station team and the noncommissioned officer who served as head of the technicians' team were sentenced (to prison) by the commander of the Air Defense School.
"A corps inquiry into the incident is still ongoing."
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