Fisherman Hooks Air-to-air Guided Missile

[mrmoshe]

Fisherman hooks air-to-air guided missile

HE thought he'd bagged a big one, but after reeling it in, police said a Florida fisherman found he really did have a live catch on his hands - an air-to-air guided missile.

Commercial fisherman Rodney Salomon never panicked, and kept long-line fishing aboard his Bold Venture boat in the Gulf of Mexico for another 10 days before returning to port.

True to fisherman form, Mr Salomon had several versions of his tale prepared for various media outlets.

"I had it strapped to the roof of my boat as we rode through lightning storms,'' he told Tampa Bay's local 10 Connects News.

"I had it secure. I keep it cool,'' he told The Associated Press, adding that he packed it with ice.

The bomb squad from a nearby military base that promptly dismantled it upon his return to shore said the heavily corroded eight-foot-long missile "could have exploded at any moment".

"I wasn't scared,'' the 37-year-old Salomon said, according to local media reports.

"Why should I be scared?''

Eglin Air Force Base later denied the missile was carrying explosives, claiming it was a "telemetry missile" used for evaluation purposes.

Mr Salomon, from Saint Petersburg, Florida, was 80km out in the Gulf from Panama City when he caught the military ordnance.

The experts said the missile was corroded by its apparent extended stay in saltwater.

Mr Salomon asked the bomb squad if he could keep the missile as a souvenir after it was made safe, but the request was denied.

Warming to the task, Mr Salomon then told local media it wasn't the first missile he and his three-man crew picked up.

Days after the find, he nabbed another, but that one "was beeping", so he decided to let it go.

Sure Rodney, but you forgot to tell us how big it was...