MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. – The military says a commercial fisherman reeled in an Air Force missile in the Gulf of Mexico.
A military bomb squad met him at the shore in Florida to remove sensitive technology from the projectile and dispose of it.
Local authorities initially said the missile was live, but Eglin Air Force Base spokesman Samuel King later said it contained no explosives.
King says the missile was fired from an F-15 fighter jet during a test in August of 2004. It was a telemetry missile, used to measure and transmit data.
Authorities say fisherman Rodney Salomon hooked the missile 50 miles off Panama City. The military uses Gulf waters for weapons training.
Salomon said he kept the missile on his boat for 10 days before returning to port near St. Petersburg.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox