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When he snagged an unstable air-to-air guided heat-seeking missile, on his long line, a Florida fisherman proved that the business of fishing is not for the faint hearted.
The missile which had been fired from an F-15 fighter jet, in August 2004, was floating live in the Gulf of Mexico, around 50 miles off the Panhandle town of Panama City.
Salomon said he packed the missile with ice and kept it securely strapped to the roof of the cabin of his boat, the Bold Venture. It was 10 days before the fisherman returned to port, with his 5,000 pounds of grouper and live missile.
Salomon said he strapped the missile to the roof of the Bold Venture cabin and packed it with ice, then continued working for 10 days. Finally he returned to port with the live missile and his 5,000 pounds of grouper.
Rodney Salomon, who is 37 years-old, says he found another missile a few days afterwards, that acted as if it was alive. It was still giving off a beeping sound, had lights, a gauge and a camera. Salomon said he quite regularly sees missiles, when he fishes in that region. "I hear them exploding over my head all the time". He was around thirty miles south of a widely recognized military testing area.
A nearby resident says he helped carry the missile ashore. 24 year old Daniel O'Neill says he accidentally dropped it, when a sharp wing point gouged into his shoulder. The Sidewinder missile had a US 1288 registration on it.
The Gulf of Mexico, south of Panama City and Pensacola, is known to be a live missile practice area for both the Navy and the Air Force, since the 1940’s, according to Global Security.org. “The weapons evaluation group tests around 300 missiles over the Gulf each year", said Eglin spokesman, Samuel King.
A retired Navy petty officer commented “They have to have some place to practice. Anyway, it’s just another way to look at the sound of freedom".
When Salomon notified the authorities, the missile was dismantled within hours by bomb specialists, from a nearby military base. The bomb squad reported that the missile could have exploded at any second, because of its apparent length of stay in salt water.
Salomon told the bomb squad he wanted to keep the missile after it was made safe. His request was turned down. Officials from MacDill told Salmon he was not to bring any future missiles back to shore, but instead to contact the Coast Guard with GPS coordinates for any retrieval.
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