| By William Rollo Updated The US 7th Fleet will lead an operation to retrieve four bombs dropped onto the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland during the Talisman Sabre training exercise with Australian troops two weeks ago. Two US fighter jets were forced to drop the inert weapons onto the marine park after civilian boats were spotted close to a target off the central Queensland coast. The United States Navy says it is finalising details of the retrieval operation with Australian authorities. The harrier jets had taken off from the assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard. Commanding Officer Daniel Dusek says the incident was unavoidable. "The status is still being reviewed by the US Navy and the US Government and the Australian Government," he said. "They're still trying to discuss and determine the best course of action, the best plan. "What I can tell you is the aircraft did take off from Bonhomme Richard and due to a series of unfortunate events that all kind of lined up, they were forced to jettison those bombs at about as safe a location as possibly could be done at the time." The US Navy says it will reveal more details of the operation soon. The ship's Commodore Hedie Agle says the incident highlights the importance of strong communication skills. "There is a success story there too because with our Australian counterparts we were able to immediately respond, we were able to put out information for the safe navigation of the area, the individuals involved found a safe spot in an emergency situation, we informed all the appropriate people. Topics: defence-forces, great-barrier-reef, federal---state-issues, shoalwater-4702, rockhampton-4700 First posted  via Science - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEHKngfPEQDV5WZOmLyy9XorJz25g&url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-31/us-military-to-lead-barrier-reef-bombs-salvage/4855018 | |||
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