Construction workers working on the grounds of a Florida airport unearthed a 1,000-pound World War II-era bomb, causing an evacuation.
The explosives were discovered Tuesday afternoon at the planned site of the Wilton Simpson Technical College campus at Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport.
Hernando County Sheriff’s Office officials rushed to the scene around 3 p.m. after receiving a 911 call from construction workers who had unearthed what appeared to be a “very old” Mark 65 bomb.
Sheriff Al Nienhuis said in a video that the high-powered aerial bomb was “so rusted and decayed” that there was no way to tell if it was alive or inert just by looking at it. Latest information shared on Facebook.
As a precaution, lawmakers evacuated an area approximately 800 meters in all directions around the unearthed device and closed roads to traffic.
The Citrus County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Team was called in to evaluate the find and the bomb was determined to be inert, or inert.
Experts from MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa were sent to Brookville to dispose of the weapon.
The Mark 65 is a general-purpose bomb developed by the US military in 1939.
During World War II, it was used against fortified targets such as dams and concrete or iron railway bridges. According to the National Air Force Museum.
“The bomb itself was an unguided gravity bomb,” says Dr. Angie Zambeck, associate professor of history at UNC Wilmington. He told Fox 13.. “Essentially it was just TNT in a metal case.”
The airport where the disabled weapon was discovered was Brooksville Army Airfield, where World War II bombers once trained.
Zumbek said with high confidence that the Mark 65 bomb originated from Eglin Air Force Base, near Panama City, Florida.
